1.
after making an attempt last week
to walk a new route
downtown
I am back this morning in my
usual haunts
down F (5 de Mayo) past the island of trees that is the west end parque teniente
to 2nd and then east
toward A x B
(decode :
"between Revolution and Constitution")
BUT AT LEAST I
am
taking my
time and scribbling as I walk
to rediscover what had become
until now just another ordinary walk
d o w n t o w n
to get my computer fix
again and again and again and again
"a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose" (4 times, not 3)
"and that made all the difference"
that at least I
am
taking my time and
s c r i b b l i n g
Makes all the difference
I begin to get the hang of formatting and
code for cyberspace ink
but in the end the beginning is pen and pulp
and at least I am taking my time
to scribble as I walk
yes no matter that people glance at me he is weird writing on the street who does he think
mmm-hmm no matter
at least I am taking my time
and scribbling as I walk
and there is my rose
taking my time
is taking
my time
i s
okei yes, nuff'sed
but
a t l e a s t I
a m
taking my
time a n d scribbling as I walk
to rediscover what had become ordinary
"and for his ordinary pays what his eyes eat only"
rediscovering my regular walk
full of nooks and crannies
where the melted mantequilla
whispers and hides its savory smell
they don't call them Thomas's English muffins for nothing
and my brother IS THE geographer heh
there're two half-lies for you
but at least I am taking
my time and scribbling
as I walk
first in this block where the ancient
creek
used to
flow
down from the same corner canyons where
zebra burros go to sleep at night
I came
through that block where they built the park
past the laundramat which still has its well
and in the name of Borgia bourgeois popes all is well
children are laughing and screaming around their swimming pool
[deleted] there are some things I must never write
but at least I
am
taking my
time and scribbling as I walk
first in this block where the ancient
creek
used to
flow
near the corner of 2 & F
a walk is a walk is a walk is a walk
2.
the brief sound of guitars praising the Lord
floats across the street in one quiet moment
drifting between noisy floods of cars during
that one quiet, brief, silence when stoplights are red two blocks back
where the floods are held back, only for a moment, held back by electric
dam
so the strumming of singing strings of wire can float across the street
like clouds of incense praise
from the evangelical association (says their sign) on 2nd
upstairs a sign in the window
where figures are moving inspecting
the premises
upstairs a sign in the window
se rentan
but no it's too noisy here on this street
already the few brief chords of guitar have vanished
under roaring smoke and dust
the dam has burst
and cars and trucks and busses flood
into downtown along
this main street
from the west hills
toward
the river and the border
line gate passage
into the other side
it used to be like this picture getting over there
but now it is much, much more worse
and they back up for miles
even into the center
of town, here, and
now they must close
all the cross streets at
Second to ease the impossible
dream
congestion
no
I do NOT want to rent on this street NO....
But I Happily Walk from my quiet apartment up by the park
down to here and turn right
past the new 3-storey tall medical building
in postmodern pastel tile and wavy steel
with parking lot and 1st-floor pharmacy
and then the water truck double parked with all its
big bottles racked up
and red plastic cones set
on the street to warn the
traffic oops don't hit us
no
¡Aguas agua Agua! ¡Agua! Water!
you can get a big garrafon bottle delivered for under two dollars
or go get it filled yourself at a water store like I do
for sixty or seventy cents
reverse osmosis tastes delicious
heh. almost sounds like a poem, that
as I reflect revising computer keyboard
open steno notebook from my walk where was I
I was where
the water truck parked with all its big bottles
the taxi stopped at the corner
and then the
corner .
2nd street & avenue E - Mutualismo
3.
stand on the poet corner scribble scribble
looking up
past those taller blocks
in mid-block
ancient windows rising up toward gray skies blue smear sunlight
dim shadows of buildings dark in this morning bright
oxymorons from the past
the top floor utterly abandoned, concrete shell complete with windows
up there, reaching for cliché heaven
and behind, only three stories high, another empty shell of ruin
this is the sometime coliseo
boxing ring and festival hall
Coliseo
where
hundreds died
in horrible fire and smoke
fifty years ago
when the coliseo
burned
and
newspapers screamed
Mexican border disaster
bad star turning down to earth
another catastrophe in the bitter
poetry of life verse death
terror grief
some things never end
and the coliseo is still a ruin
with crumbling five storey windows and hotel rooms
in front
still a looming mass waiting for the earthquake which
will knock it down
into another twisted mess
of rubbled steel
whose concrete ribs still stick u
´ back behind the street
some ruined gray crustacean shell
on rooftop beach
horseshoe crab of cement and iron rods
aya more of those
castillos
trembling in the rebar breeze
there is no explanation as to why it is
not haunted
well
perhaps
it IS
.
Beyond,
south, the hills
rise toward Independencia
crowned with palm trees and clinging houses
until I turn
and walk
4.
pasale pasale next along 2nd the
everything for 11 peso store
and now my glance east down the street
toward cathedral towers
and the big metal arch
giant silver n rising over rooftops
metal millennium arch that moves in a trick of perspective
sliding along above the downtown lines as we walk towards its
shimmering metal hoop
trapped in wires and towers
in this block, as the arch slips toward the cathedral dome
you must jostle your way through the crowds lined up
in front of IFE waiting for their credentials
to vote
and this same spot is also where Michael and Maria found their favorite restaurant and where he told her, two years ago that [deleted per his request]
La fonda de don Pedro
"it's funny how I find myself in love with you...."
sister half sister
across the street from
ELEKTRA appliance store
a painted art wall
hides a big house of unknown family
where an old guy used to squat blowing saxaphone for tips
with his wife waving the hat at passersby
s
as
As I walk
as we walk
as you walk
adding letters
to each line
the big arch continues to slide right
beyond rooftops on the left
crawling slowly
toward
church towers and dome
daring me to invent tab indents and line breaks to picture its movement
I can not equal reality, only reflect through this glass, darkly
imagining spell it differently, smoking mirror Tezkatlipoka
first
passing by the petfood store and crystal herb shop
toward the bank on the corner and newsstand
there are always newsstands here and shoeshine booths
and those ubiquitous carts selling food
on every corner, not just this
I mean, ese ES México, ¿n'est-ce pas? Ouí,
and we
are on the south side of the street, remember?
until the arch, precisely as you reach this corner
is hidden
and the traffic
light at 2nd & D
favors us so
we cross
D I A G O N A L L Y
one of the weird pleasures of downtown Tijuana
when the little walk sign says white man walking
(NOT RED HAND STOP)
then you may cross
X-fashion in any direction
BUT
you only have ten seconds....
heh
as the church chimes begin to ring ten a.m.
Bong bong Bing bangity big bang bong
the woman on this corner is selling fresh squeezed orange juice
a man is sweeping up the street curb sidewalk
cleaning trash from the gutter
municipal service
yes
5.
you
must take it
up a notch now, to reflect
how, here, in words, the enery advances
t o t h e n e x t l e v e l
this up step stepping up quantum leap chaos energy
rise rise rise, then JUMP
from one block
to the next
you can
feel it, Dave
your mind is going, yes
you are now being absorbed by the mob
from one block we left behind to
another we breach
once more dear friends into the breach
once more or else we fill up the gap with
our English dead, our Spanish
a l i v e a n d kicking yes this
is the flaming heart of downtown
here, in these few meters of side
walk
we cross over
the threshold
and enter the
next realm of
energy, there 's the sign-post up a h e a d
you've crossed over
into the change into the uplifted magnetic charge
this raising of human density
and energy
ACTIVE ENERGY
this is the big block leading to the church
where stores struggle to survive in the
gripping face of
hustling thieves and streaming customers
HUMAN DENSITY
thicker sidewalks
dirtier pavement
paved stone feet
one body still sleeping off last
night drug and alcohol stupor
cast down on the pavement
filthy hands clutching
at slowly breathing
chest and guts and
how can you write such ugliness, gringo
Ramón would say inside my brain
but
noise and scurry is everything here
and the passersby carefully step
around the indelicate question
of a body on these sidewalks
Aye, we are no longer in Danial's "west end"
everything vibrates on a higher energy
level electrons
leaping up into new orbits
seeking other atoms
other molecules
and everything is moving, moving, moving
racheting up the humming zap
it
is
intense
it is More Intense here
now
even the wet gutters stink
with more...
I don't know what
je ne sais quoi energie
from sidewalks washed
only two hours ago
even the smell is more intense
and then there are those churchbells still ringing in your brain
with a mountain of little sidewalk stalls selling all the saints
and religious worship paraphenalia you could ever want or desire
yes
no
it is changed, now
now we are
in the heart
of old downtown
on the flattest part of Junipero Serra's big flat space
above the river
and I desperately want to
stop
Stop
STOP
w r i t i n g
put away
my little steno pad
of flipping pages
and
just
w a l k .
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