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a creature of habit I have my beaten paths it is time to seek new ones instead of third street to second go forth on fourth, fifth, sixth book of anglosaxon history tucked under my arm from one edge of the parknotto the other I begin with an idea and an open notebook fresh eyes to see my neighborhood all over again up past another row of little shacks and food and snack windows opening onto the sidewalk they're everywhere here specifically here in this shadow of cross street from UNIDAD DE MEDICINA FAMILIAR No. 19 DR. ROBERTO FLORES AGUILAR big metal letters across the entry wall roof beam raise it high, CEMENT carpenter nurses scurrying with morning coffee and an open notebook there no, I bought none here only scribble I saw and I see will see as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be COFFEE WITHOUT END CAFÉ SIN FIN [I shall be sipping café in the café {when I type this later} AMEN] a m e n all green cement lines and children medicine "familiar" = "family" another case of words changing meaning from same latin roots into their distant Britanic and Iberian great great great great great grandchildren all green cement lines and children medicine wet sidewalks where it rained last night ANOTHER CORNER just across the street at 5th & F across the street from where SERVICIO DE TEC Carlos Santana used to live on 5th TECNICOS with his family when he played PLOMEROS Y guitar on the busses for tips in the 1950s ELECTRICISTAS and then that man abused him in Playas TRABAJOS . GARANTIZADOS los albañiles the construction workers PASE UD. are sitting in the empty lot where SOLICITE SU the famous musician, universal citizen of Tijuana SERVICIO used to live . los albañiles are listening to WHEN THE MUSIC's OVER by the Doors in the empty lot where Santana lived before the building collapsed upon itself it could not support HIS absence and fifteen years ago crumbled in upon itself in lonely hunger for its famous son from Jalisco aya aya ai ya ........................................................................................ ........................................................................................ p i l g r i m - a g e d ( f o o t s t e p s ) PLOMERIA SASTRERIA AND CONsultorio de doctores apartments for rent in a rather cool looking bldg on sixth just down from IMSS medical unit (that which is all green cement, remember?) printing stores and flower shops zigzag through my notebook slowly walking down the block around the corner, stopping, scribbling, people looking at me past the corner of 5th & Mutualismo where the delegación city office sit oh look omaigad whatthehells that crazy gringo doing now TURN THE CORNER TURN THE PAGE mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm write write write write left left left left left right right right right printing stores and flower shops, more of them across the street from yet another funeraria it's time for me to print a book before I die unsung like my father print a book and throw a party looking up the street toward the hillside only one block away, now, I have switched corners again look there, up Mutualismo (E) to the hillside only one block away, but ten storeys tall, measuring by nearby windows yes a handful of houses staggering up and down its slope, richer ones perched right on top including that castle with towers that Pepe asked me if we'd seen OH YES Michael purred, ain't that a handsome one all pastel beige and turrets and picture windows something truly California Spanish from the 30s surrounded by ragged gardens, walls, fences, now THERE is a house with style yes yes yes yes meanwhile below, on the edge of the "big flat space" where olde Tijuana was built I see across the street another floreria and then the plant nursery shop where I like to pass by and smell the green water air but today on the other side of this street (6th) there is only one car being washed did I mention it rained last night l a c u n a e b r e a k another empty lot expose barren floors and beyond, ragged ex-backyard, more walls hidden inner houses, truck parked and then more trucks beyond a tiny snack stand ......................................................................................................... across the street where the brood of german shepherds lives inside their gate until on the corner of 6th & D there are trucks parked right under a house built on stilts over the work area steel stilts above the cluster of heavy truck fortune made from the highway, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and now now they built a house floating in the air forty feet above the street this is not fiction this IS surreal magical but the same pattern appears all over town, yes gorgeous stucco arched windows up there like some rapunzel 4-BR 3-BA protected by giant metal beasts below mm-hmmm go see it yourself I mean COME see it yourself on the southwest corner of 6th & D (Miguel Martinez or something or another Avenue) ........................................................................................................... turn up D past the the school of Sor Juana since 1958 inscripciones abiertas and a sudden alley across the street I never knew existed time and space unfold and warp or maybe I just forgot and then the beginning there is a with of up a ramp ascending up up up into another neighborhood distinct tilt to on top the first hills INDEPENDENCIA where Pepe lives this land here at the utmost edge of the big flat space just below the hills where all those ages of silt used to wash down and pile up under the drizzling course of yearly rains from the pleistocene before we humans became albañiles construction workers to lay down asfalto & cemento streets and sidewalks and all yes come to cover everything with immuebles immovable bienes raices real estate mmmmm yes the city was built but it still rains only now they we flood and wash away the dirt and dust that used to pile up and raise the earth toward heaven even as the hills melt melt melt turn the corner again and again, clinging always a short block from the base of those boundary hills up AVENIDA whatever past the big furniture store windows pues these are muebles movables yes glass sheets fronting middleclass dream displays for your ideal home, señora 50% Desc. 50% D i s c o u n t in huge red letters trimmed with white and green seating for six around rustic craftsman looking mass-produced style/design open @ noon a couple of guys hanging out at a little parking lot next door buenos días buenos días across the street a small set of ancient California bungalow shacks aren't long for this world, sinking down on crumbling foundations pure 30s style of wood frame, maybe redwood antiques devoured by termites termites termites will put them to sleep termites ripped my flesh termites mmmmmmmm well may-be yes no so across from a huge, ugly apartment block shivering in dark shadow well I'll be d@mned here's the REY DEL TAMAL king of tamale and look... up on the hill again, but from another angle now those castle turrets on beige mansion towers middleclass poverty and wealth barely two stones throws apart from each other here ah, there it is, the hillside itself bleeding stones from ancient Sonora rivers before dinosaurs died we became scurrying meat . witness to the death of jurassic and birth of pleistocene . there it is, the boundary hillside itself edge to my own little downtown west end world backed up by rising walls and barren dirt . and again, meanwhile, back on this flat place edge another house torn away on the corner of 8th & D big palm tree all alone in its empty corner, with big open jagged yard and abandoned cement floor, but over there some upstairs shower wall still hanging on abandoned fragment even a pipe fixture jutting from bathroom tile ay ay ay Tijuana what families what history what lives gone someone once got clean every day for work even the pipe fixture still juts from the wall but all the rest of the two-storey house has vanished into another dimension of time and space leaving only this signpost, this shadow, this e c h o all the rest gone white space, negative space, like Manny Farber would say ah, walking one last block here come the cops we have reached "la ocho" pues well and Constitución so put away the notebook little gringo poet it's time to eat breakfast a t l a s t across the street across the 8th street from that infamous police station who so gracefully (not) hosts what we may honestly call t h e T I A J U A N A J A I L send my bail I need money to write more [ tijuanagringo@yahoo.com ] ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________once I get my visa for working I will be happy to provide guide service to whomever whenever whatever rainbow stripe man woman etc anyone anytime stay tuned for more information ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ okei bai okay bye ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ gringo calendar : next diaryablog : previous diaryablog
copyright 2004 daniel charles thomas