Interstitial Oakland

 Thrift shop downtown

Where few remember to look carefully,

endless astonishment

 Tiki candle

Odd decor,

strange fruit

 The banker's lobby,

the doors are closing

please stand clear of the doors

 Surfacing

Lost souls downtown

 Color intrusions,

painted city

 HOW CAN A POOR MAN

STAND SUCH TIMES AND LIVE?

 Doctor Doom 

seems amused

(on the side of a bus)

Guy with an articulated walk
and a huge Jolly Roger 

on the seat of his pants

There he goes

no doubt

 more in style than I am

 I'm flashing back

to when I was in Nam

and I wasn't even in Nam,

Like Dick Cheney said,

 I had other priorities

 Composition

brush stroke, inflatable,

reflections in urban glass

Toward evening

Crow at the top

of the ceiling sky,

Moon in Gemini

22, 23 May 2016

South of the Border IV: Barrio Flava

 

The Flaneur relaxes his teleological quest

to wander the neighborhood

in an aleatory fashion

It's a very traditional
highly colorful part of town
with lots of Mexican flags

But en Estados Unidos

which makes it muy

cool

Hoary spooky dummy,
Skeletons hanging in window,

A travel agent/fixer's office,

I think he yelled at me

 like a figure from 

Mexican Bunuel films

Not a pseudo-aristocrat

like Archibaldo or "El,"

More street-level sinister
 

Did I mention the local color?

Open to the street,

The Picasso bedroom

Marriage white

Mexican washboard

Country ways for

modern urban society,

Bet it sounds good,

I want one

Wow,

Muy gay 

caballero

The shell of the old society

endlessly repurposed

Guy with a pink hoodie, 
Kidnapped girl,
business as usual

 Had the subtle sensation

of being watched

Perhaps merely
watched-over
Guarded by Jesus

The anchor 

Fruitvale Mission

Virgin of Guadalupe

Grotto

 Brings me back to Oaxaca

Or anywhere in Meso-america

The vanishing mosaic

Icon

Folk art glass

May is dedicated to Mary,

Mother of Christ

 Waited for some time

for the 1R bus to show up

bus stop across the street

Threw in the towel,

headed back to the 51 stop

And that's all folks

Epilogos

Back over the estuary

that which makes 

Alameda an island

Mount Talampais 

in evanescent distance,

the center holds

Evening fell

past my window

a gull flew South,

Flew South of the Border

down Mexico way

20 May 2016

South of the Border I: Train on the Island

The drive-by portion

of today's program

 Old main library

Ride along the estuary

cruising Alameda

to dig the vital signs 

of legendary Fruitvale 

 Railroad bridge

Which side is

the wrong side?

On a brisk and windy day

20 April 2016