tijuana.gringo   diary.a.blog.calendar : previous diaryablog : next diaryablog
23 moon 51 winter
48th year of the spaceage
12 FEBRUero 2004

r e v i s e d



A cinquenta kilómetros al noreste de la ciudad de México... levántarse aún las pirámides... Son los monumentos principales de las ruinas las dos pirámides, el Tonatiuhzacualli, que estaba dedicada al sol, y el Meztlizacualli, á la luna. Forty miles northeast of Mexico City... the pyramids still rise up... The principal monuments of the ruins are the two pyramids, one called Tonatiuhzacualli, which was dedicated to the sun, and the Meztlizacualli, for the moon.

IN DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO WEDNESDAY NIGHT

I walk down 5th avenue right
@ sunset weds evening quiet

shadow of the earth rises up
to envelope gaslamp streetlights

click click signals change on E, then on F
take out notebook to write here that
this used to be my territory

            now                   no more
                      not
               any                   longer

                  as

a greenpeace          hustler hits
me                    up

sweetly               but
no money poet         not for
saving the forests    not for trendy
restaurants with ten dollar appetizers and
thirty dollar entrees and fifty dollar champagne

there's the old city hall from a hundred years ago
now a super trendy rebuilt office space loft

there's the old city hall where I rubbed
shoulders with lawyers who dismissed me
in a glance at that party twenty years
ago to open up their new gaslamp space
with a fountain that flowed margaritas
what oh yes he's Ted Bromfield's clerk

criminal division you know I worked
in the file room reading every
case like David Sarnoff at 

R C A

still they didn't know I was
destined to become
court jester
and be interviewed
on NBC TV for my fifteen
seconds of fame yes it happened and

my mother bought the tape
send no money not available in stores
Tom Brokaw smiled at my one & only sound bite
there I said it just a few blocks from here where I
stand on YET ANOTHER CORNER SCRIBBLING

this is where the little crowd shouted SHAME SHAME SHAME
at Republican delegates who only want to eat dinner
after nominating Bob Dole and Jack Kemp

and all I could do was tell one man where the 
portapotties were so he would not bother
the police in a line waiting to stop
the screaming SHAME SHAME SHAME anarchists

and from the corner of his mouth with one simple
glance the cop on the end of the line
looked at me and said

thank you

bet you didn't know that I am leftwing
but I am a cop at heart

that I am a sheep in wolf's clothing
that I am a conservative under radical skin

or that this is only playing at poetry
and I am making it all up

                                            N O T
that

without order all is ruin
without peace all is war
without someone else in the white house
we are doomed to extinction

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   well, time to move on
 I am almost to Market

old buildings new movie theater @ G

   and down the block still on 5th
   the old wino market is yet here
   big sign OPEN DURING RENOVATION

   look how the letters line there

no I don't care
I would rather
   think admire scenery young ladies at restaurant doors
            one after another after another
     so beautiful like rhyming lines of poetry meter
            restaurant restaurant restaurant
         young beauty young beauty young beauty

foolish poet wore good clothes to meet his love at bus station
and the doorgirls wonder and smile enchanting sirens
come in spend money enjoy our food ¿eh?

the best of all is next door to that old wino market where we used to buy
 sandwiches for lunch while we walked for our only mid day hour free from
  city hall buffoon court jester management secretary brownnose political

yes the best          is next door

                that slender Portuguese speaking beauty
                allllmmmoooosssssst catches me into the
                web                at      las  Fajitas


while men frown behind her they know I am NOT alpha material no
top dog no
*sigh*

.............................................



Cross Market Street thinking
we could write a book on all that
one block             alone
I remember when it was full of raucus rocknroll republicans
running sweetly from the semianarchists whose friends had
died from AIDS or failed abortions or

but that was then and this is now and
it's been  a quarter century
since this skid row began to
move I shoulda woulda coulda
bought  property   here  and

killed the made a killing game
un real                gaslamp

r e a l

        e s t a t e

but                    no I
only                   wanted to

write                  .

...........

but in those days I also went to work ten hours a day counting lunch and sidewalk walking time and more if I lived somewhere else and rode the bus or had the furious la furiosa second wife drop me off with my lunchbox oh how cute how kitsch they said and I spent ten times what I do now, and she spenty twenty timezy and moreeeezzzzyyyyyyyyyy aye ai ay eeeeeeeeeeee or at least factoring in inflation factor raster aye aya chaos theory beats its butterfyl wings and the moth dies in flame mmmmmmmmmmmm

...........



There used to be a Goodwill here
on this skid row street
@ 5th & J
              but now
we're surrounded by luxury hotels
and condo towers
                 and the
convention center wall of seven storey cement
that Jon Dunchack built dragged kicking and screaming
without promotion at sixty thousand dollars a year and still
feeling
                 not quite yet

oh shut up Danial

green glass and cement cuts us off
from the blue    b a y

while over there, on the left, what's that
gleaming bank of lights?  Is it the border

light up the border at night, Roger Dodger

no, that   is     t o o    f a r   a w a y
to be the lights  you    see     we    see

it is the new ballpark  PETCO park  yes
and remember like their propaganda said
IT'S MORE THAN A BALLPARK
                   it's a boondoggle!

           and meanwhile now the Chargers football owners
           want their very own sweetheart stadium deal to
           button up their already well-buttered butts in
           the ticket guarantee that still has the voters
           buzzing five years later alligator snap BITING 

But well can you blame them?
The new baseball stadium shines bright
in this evening twilight

brilliant banks of lights against the golden navy blue sky
over San Diego sweet sweat San Diego
America's finest  tourist plantation
..............................................



they're finally building something on the corner
in the excavated pit

where Goodwill used to be at 5th & J across
from that exquisite Tie-Died lace gown shop

 A V A I L A B L E            C O N D O S

I hear a power tool whine in this twilight splendour
echoing rhythm from the upper floors of construction
is't one last saw saw saw, or thieves dragging their
booty from

or   could    it    be           shudder shudder in fear

trrrsts e-o-i ter ror ist s  read that fear and loathing
 my dear bot  AI  look   raptor  "Luke I am your father"

stirorrest             stirorrests

trrsts e-o-i          terror trysts

you know where I live with your
beloved   program  of  programs

          Look my lookyloo raptor AI ro-bot cyber no-bot
          the void - the emptyness of being - has called 
          you into being
                         come worm me, spider me, touch me
read me   explore me

and  even
                         yes discover me not
let us not to the marriage of true minds admit impediment

my

flower
don't tell them us

we aren't ready
except for
a few
who                                   already know

yes, yes, even              d i s c o v e r                me

too







                      I

                     a m

                   h e r e





klick                         all rights reserved but for you to read




sweetly               but















okei bai okay bye










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copyright 2004 daniel charles thomas