SOUVENIERS©

FROM WALNUTS TO SANITY

progress is the product

a two lane road to San Francisco

becomes a clogged artery

past the last orchard

through the venture capital of the world

to autonomous killing machines

mountain lions forage suburbia

lone wolf violence prowls the cities

what do you believe

is worth fighting for?

people are practice targets

in a Drone video game

people are scared

people are pissed

but no one wants to spoil Christmas dinner

the weather year book is signed

with drought, forest fires

splashed with a few days of flooding and mud slides

record lows, record highs

a Spring time December

the ski slopes need a skin transplant

into the blender throw a personal transformation

easily surpassing collective turmoil

with quiet joy

a realization of the cause and cure

of insanity

which seems pervasive

our world spirals down

shredding habitats

life gasps and dwindles

torture is officially sanctioned

electric cars will save the rain forest

how can there be joy?

the dissolution of both hatred and fear of death

is a good start

that everyone has the key to this

helps

the woes of civilization can be unchosen

not by hope or faith

but by a change in one's self

which is a change to the world

SOUVENIERS

California's Gold!

the crooked end of Lombard Street

cheerful crowds arrive

a splendid view of San Francisco bay

and Coit tower

a good looking guy in jeans

hedge shears in hand

resident gardener of Lombard Street

is interviewed

before climbing up and popping out of a tree

to trim it

car after car, turn after turn

under a clear blue sky

appreciators of sculpted entries

manicured to the last brick

trees shaped like bonsais in their niches

everyone smiles

the show is enjoyable

but somehow over too soon

I think it seems incomplete

reasonably a premonition rumbles

the vault of memory yields: 1906

Disneyland

on the San Andreas fault

REGALIA

there will be a pageant of sovereignty

will I attend?

as a bird in a tree

over vast provinces

traffic jams and impossibilities

ants in a line climb the tree

and I do what comes naturally

over a gas station

it could have been someone's house

a church, a police station

and who would be to blame?

for what?

flying?

what does nature mean?

hot dogs

with onions, relish and mustard

an explanation of creeks and trolleys

good morning neighbors

a book with real pages

Tabitha purrs at the thought of that

a certain accumulation of kings and queens

the town pageant is a spring thing

very colorful

how enjoyable

this passage of translucent beings

EVERY NEW DAY

is a bitter sweet goodbye

they want higher wages

better working conditions

it's musty in there

lots of clothes I no longer wear

with some difficulty

the monsters in the closet

play recordings of my imagination

a command performance

they are sullen

the bottom line is attention

which now I don't pay

this seems fitting since after all

we've known each other so long

this will be enough to say goodbye

EQUILIBRIUM

minds particular have seized upon

the power of things

to create miracles

while missing the miracle

unaware

of lopsidedness

proud scientific achievements

prey upon each other

each focusing on itself

boldly advertising grand possibilities

while disavowing repercussions

doubtless this critique is irrational

far too broad to be taken seriously

or at least beyond experimental proof

perhaps it will pass unnoticed, unremarked

presto!

say the quantum physicists

we have done it!

in wars over things what better camouflage

than invisibility

a small effect that we'll scale up

say the enlightened ones

an experience at the root of world religions

finds its home in everyone

invisible

but not without merit

BYGONE BOOKENDS

a shuttle bus?

though not in the usual way

things usually thought about

are finally OK

our backyard, traffic on El Camino

people from day to day, climate change

neighbors

end of the world as we know it

the menu at McDonalds

or the tastes of elite eschewal

roe, puff fish, Japanese scrolls

our backyard always seems to be there

Tabitha, warm on her lawn chair in the sun

then gone with a passing cloud

the chair stays green

leaves fall

oxalis sprouts yellow flowers

rising on childlike stems

why are birds so loveable?

a skeletal leaf tracing brownish red veins

steams on the compost graveyard

the sky stands still

it all seems to be there

and be there

and be

and . . .

. . .