P and Body on the Freeway

II

(Fuzzy), which way to turn? P doesn't know and looks the other way East down Hill on
Fourth. To the freeway, to the 110 North, stepping slowly, singing, "Make me a ham
Burger, and place it on the steps... leading to your door," take a turn, and turn a
Corner, come on around: P balances on the sidewalk, awake. Lights, red, blue, white

Over, "Come on around; corner," and lights flash: "Reasoning for reason cast as (Duchamp
Moves, knight to queen bishop knight), and lights flash again, does the ground shake?" P stops and asks
Himself, "If death is here then it must be there and with my no-sense of death sense then
This sensory feeling must decline," one parking meter waves a sign "OUT OF O,"

The paper is ripped after the "O." Out of O or out of out, P walks, contin
Uing up Fourth and down to the offramp, which swings a slice of orange peel from free
Way to connector road, "Out of order," P sits on the bank against a priv
Et and stares, fire flares surround a yellow draped mound, "L is no longer refer

Ring," creation and creating, P gets up and slides down the hill. Stops at the curb and
Stares; sits down, stands up, "what did you do?" One marked car with lights and one unmarked
Car without lights: cars slowly pass into the orange peel and P's pupils close.

P and Body on the Freeway

I

P looks at a piece of dried pizza in a paper towel, sitting on the
Curb, legs out in the street. The crust is white, still powdery with flour from the bread ta
Ble. The bottom is black, from the oven temperature. The tomato sauce is
Ink, red ink and the pepperoni says, "You need some exercise:"

"You need an exercise plan," a way to move to the ...the flavor of the crust is
Woody, an oak wood taste. Up on his feet P sees a bright light up Fourth
Street, illuminating the entire skyline behind the water court, "ok, singles
Night has come," carrying the pizza and eating while walking, sliding feet

In heel-less shoes: standing and leaning against a wall, then walking another four feet
Another two feet, shuffling up the hill (the escalator is off and blocked from
Entry). Two eyes float down the stairs. floating above a shirt pocket. Stuck at the park
Ing meter at Hill and 4th; a meter, "Hey! I'm an x-ray spectrometer."

P stops and listens again, "You know your bones are crinkly?" What finger is this? P
Steps over a board with nails: unnoticed by the eyes, or at most, unknowing
Ly seen, "Do you see the fly next to your ears?" (the meter bends several
Inches toward the street) P continues to walk up 4th, seeing only one truck go

By... dark, what is a stone thrown from a passing car's speed? P thinks nine, but he's not sure
If it's in miles or seconds per inch or... voice from down the street asks, "Is it
Impression or effect, or is it reason cast into unreason or the
Affliction of reasoning against reasoning?" ...That drives the truck down to Broadway.

P and the Dead Fruit Fly

II

...Feelings to surface and be heard? A grander scale forming under
An ostinato of one note. The one that threatens to overwhelm: open speech,
And no fear (the fear of no fear causes rust to form and metal
To give way) gives way, a network of incised lines and teeth
Marks. P sighs and looks to his right - dinner is
finished - no breakfast tomorrow,

No breakfast the next day. Walking over the concrete, broken and lifted by
Maturing ficus trees - down to third. E relaxes in the shade - no tan just
Resting and smoking a cigarette; "The comet is pink against the lower handle."
Treeman awakes and stares: no realizations, just urgency. The feeling of itching
Feet and ants, flies, cockroach (thumbnail size as opposed to the real
Ones). T decides it's easier to walk than endure the itching - the smell of
Coffee: P stops at the law library, his shadow on the sidewalk falls off the

Curb bending and changing as each car passes. Sitting on the curb
At Temple and Broadway, no memory, no thought. A rock stares up
At the P face, "Your beard has grown this year." P says, "It doesn't grow,
My face is shrinking." The rock says, "Well, you have to think about the
Opposite at some time," the rock looks like a rotting ficus nut.
The library opens as a smell of death rolls onto the sidewalk
Around P's legs - "You have five minutes to leave, sir."

P and the Dead Fruit Fly
 
I

The fruit fly is dead. The alcohol reverie rips away the internal or
Gans. Burning the motor up, extending the saw blade farther than is required
To completely cut the vines away from winding around legs and arms of fu
Ture trees: internal and against the lower duodenum: cabbage, purple and red

Spring lettuce sucked into the atmosphere and held unconscious. Some of the sha
Dows are half; making a pine tree come up and out of, ahead, finished in split
Beams. It is the transition from air compressor noise to nail gun punctures. One puncture
beaten in by a nail from an air compressor - blowing, "some
Say, 'do you remember when to get up?' that's what." Harsher

Contrast - built in by a limit of twenty two to twenty to twenty one
Drops in procedure. 21, 20, 22 concurrent variations in syllables counted
By taking the body into the refrigerator and slicing the webbing between
The fingers: it's cold and therefore less blood and pain. But, this is not
How the earliest ancestors guessed - artificial forms overlaid by
Devotion and perspective detail, "Forget the pain, smoke screen it,"
The question is asked, "How are you feeling," and the answer is, "No, no
More coffee for me." Take direct observation on blank paper: arranging each
Object in line with five points. The sun comes into the room from the left

And leaves through the door. "I'll be back," not a forgotten person, not a battle
With armor or flags and songs: "I'll be back in springtime, I'll be back at
Noon, I'll be back." Flowers are blowing out in the yard by the
Door. Treeman wakes up - off the top of the bus stop and back down the
Tree onto the sidewalk - will it be: getting entangled or getting the implausible...

P Walks The West Side Of LA Ave.

P walks the West side of LA
Ave. Next to ivy and "The buses and methane smells
like Elmer's glue." Three parrots
Fly over, talking about the sun going down and how

The gas gets trapped between buildings
And never escapes and those that walk there are re
Constituted into a
New "breathing" world, "¿que?" you mean four times today the buses

Stopped and five times they didn't, this
Isn't freedom in constituting, this is being
And, "but, don't walk there," don't
Walk there; make it a decision and walk over there, walk

Over away from the gas, into
The building and, "Now an asbestos shower, now a
Rain of sixty cycle light,"
Fluorescent creations, one word means a response will not

Be a response. A statement, a word
A constitution by numbers. Choice becomes, and is
A memory; one locked in
Either cell or membrane and large liver spots from the el

Bow to the hand: internal and per
Sonal, dumping into a distressed thought, thinking
Of viewing the stucco as
A mirror and creating images of the patterns re

Flected by the parking lot lights shin
Ing against the glass of the building across the street,
"No big words, put together,
One after another," P sips a cup of coffee, once.

No big words, put together one af
Ter the other: walking on the East side of LA
Ave., P creates the West side
And creates the East side, but the North side is still cover

Ed in a methane cloud, "Discuss the
Causes that are usually emphasized, the
Responsibility be
Longs down the street in a tube under a shirt; a choice.

F & 1st Street

II

A head comes up out of the trash can be
Tween  1st & 2nd  on Los Angeles street.
The food is portioned in three areas of
The Styrofoam container: kappa maki roll, a
Covered bowl of miso soup, French fries, wa

Sabi, and a plastic fork - "on, deadpan
Comedy," ...kicking again and once more, as
If the wall had been pulled from the motorized
Plug, moving from the... comedy, dragging pearls
Along the floor: singing, 'going where the

Wind don't blow," tap dance that metaphor, tap
It true.  F feels dizzy.  Shuffling on
The sidewalk.  Indignant and the Corporal 
Says, "off that experience!"  I throw you in the air and take pictures - Oh oh oh - like sex.

Confused, annata the doctrine: smoke
Screens the wall again, only hazy gray.  Tap
The foot, bounce the ball, swing the legs, raise the arms, push
Out the pelvis, tap the foot, bounce the ball, raise the
Arms, swing the leg: metaphor dance tapping.

F & 1st Street

I

A head comes up out of the trash can, and,
He looks right down L.A. Street (three leaf blowers).
The Styrofoam carton has bread and 
Pasta, a piece of chicken, red
And underdone, done like blood.

F saw it; a subduction zone: one more
Thing, prone to breaking & falling - skin shrinks it
Self. The new moon at 5am, up over
2nd Street .  Over, no exception
And, "Oh that igneous for

Mation," pressure on Venus to extend
The moon's point: F comes up out of the trash
Can.  A camera is fixed on his face,
On his face.  FLASH! Chicken, blood red,
A zone moving into one

Two or three fragments/splinters that raise
The rash around F's eyelids; a slap against
The face and over the tumble weed.
"Would you look at me," F asks, "No
One remembers the three days."

Vignes Street Prayer

III

...And reappears across the street
The water came up over the curbs
Yesterday, the water, too much
For, "Poor Ophelia."
Do you call this resonance?
Hands on the grocery cart
Pushing, one leg back
One leg forward, "Drown'd"
Ah, chanting Marvin Gaye
'Mercy Mercy Me'

Wide range of R values
Just a capital R.
Power rating.
1/10 of a watt - this
Current (voltage) maximum
Power wasted and burned
It's one watt or less.
Bands of colored R values
High is less, ohms.
Insulation, bricks against
A corner; broken pieces lay
Around. Several thousand
Ohms. The building appears
Now, one address up, 25 to 26.
Vignes connects to Temple,
Or "If you want" to First St.
Electricity, bend the distressed
Elements placed on windowsills,
Doorways - doorways that
That hide clothes and shoes and
Household items. Manganin to
Chromium to iron. The street
Shines with cobalt
Blue. And disappears...

Vignes Street Prayer

II

No collar shirt, long
Sleeves two pockets
Hang out and drape
Down. An incessant
Search for the end of
The street. Standing
Surrounded by plastic
Bags, eyes focused on
Nothing, muttering, "Conscience
And cowards, us all, us all
Cowards, cowards
Consciousness, us all."
Is this extension? Is it force?
Faculty, influence?
It's the incompetence, a
Single moment lost. A
Mouth comes out of the
Sky, "Resolution and
Death, where acting stops
And the scene is landscape
Imagery of stock
Photos."

The building across the
Street shimmers and
Disappears.

Vignes Street Prayer

I

Creators, puppet plays within
A story. And a long prose
Poem about counting
Using the left hand fingers.

The coffee service is offered
Up, "What fingers am I holding
Up?" Ah, the City's best,
The ones counting on Vignes.
The audience as entertainment.
The one's asleep, many
Ghosts among them, they that
(Are) is, that watch the shadows
rise. "Is it still prose?"

A step onto a wooden platform
Before sixteen or so empty
Seats.

Commercial St.

III

"Oh, radiant east, early
Morning, dumb, exposed,"
D stands on one foot,
Stance ascetic both
Shoes off. A car
Drives by.  It's shadow
Passes across her 
Raised leg. The
Car stops and backs up.
The window rolls down.
A large yellow llama
Looks at D, big brown
Eyes, "From where I'm
Sitting you appear
To be holding the bridge,"
Blinks, soundless. D,
An open mouth and head
Bent forward:  The
Chain link fence comes off
The supporting poles, two step
Three step to a samba
One, uh eh, uh
Uh eh, uh...

The car folds back out
Into an altar with 
Grilling hamburgers, fried
Grease molecules floating.
Drift down to surround the llama
And D, "All shiny and bright in
The oily air," Sun disperses it,
A tea in scalding water, brown.
D's foot drops. Taps?
And she pulls the blanket over her head (closer).

Commercial St.

II

Near the 4th Street bridge,
Night. No cars. Crawling
Along the sidewalk, weeds
Have grown in the curb's
Cracks. Dinner, try one
Leaf. "Those toxic things
We love," D sings quietly.

The tents are gone, the
Suitcases moved behind
A chain link fence. Canvas hides the lot,
"A group stands together
And waves at a group that 
Collects trash." Cameras were
Here Saturday, ABC/or some white van with a...

Image one: blue tents
Image two: green garbage bags
Image three: piles of wood (broken pallets)
Image four: police cars
Image five: police staff
Image six: occupants of artist's condos

Build up this picture with
Painted stucco over.  The
White wash has dripped.
Shoe prints around a base,
Street lamp. Not reflection, not observation.

D broke her middle fingers
Falling and rolling down
The concrete slope to
The river.

The target moves away, singing,
"I will get to the kitchen table 
Someday," but the rotten
Tooth aches. Suck at the
Infection, eat some more
Leaves, lie down and
Sleep.

Commercial St.

I

Mechanical reproduction. That
Article about motivation
And repeating patterns, in 
The trash. D spits and
Watches the traffic on
The 101.  Sitting on a 
Stack of suitcases, five.

Gravel on the ground
Makes a beautiful sound.
As sliding feet go
Walking. This field
With a large hole
Is usually a place to
Sleep. Now it's full.
Water and Styrofoam, paper.
Across 1st Street
Artist's condos, D
Hums, "uum, uhm, ah, um?"

A new pattern, at least
Today and in this a lot
Reaching up to 50, but
Not quite...

Around D, she has surrounded
Herself with sections of 
The LA Times, California section.
Are you aware? Of the 
9 digit zip code, of
The inconsistencies, dramatic
Or other:
Two people walk on the side
walk toward D and pass,
"Please, a quarter, please
For a cup of coffee, please,
'Assholes'."

Third and Main Restaurant Watching

2303

Cutting through red meat one knife
Handle at a time, spending
Restless moments thinking
In twisted lines; 'ah that the
Sentence might reveal a fine
Chord that rings with reverb
Or the tremolo off/on.'
Understanding that one letter reveals
Less than one syllable reveals.
Doubting the fine words spaced
Without fine lines, knowing that the going east
Reveals dawn and fine awkwardness,
In minute's detail.  Refined in a recovery of
Tension, that spells out tenderloin roasting
Ever so slowly in a pan of garlic
When chopped and dropped into burning oil.
It is not this fine that defines
The finished steak, but the burning
Heat that touches, building to a cadence...
On II - V - I progression, "someone's looking at the cheese,
Under the table to see,
Two times three pardon me," (sing it).
Gone days, gone revelations
Inserted into fanatical mouths.
Mimicking the restrains of Hammerstein.
Missing the notes and losing the beat,
In such a way that leaves us wanting, waiting, singing...
"Cause it's vegetarians running amok,
Kicking the ass off Texan's with butts,"
Size it up, tear it down, move on.

F at 2nd Street

III

F is lying on the sidewalk read
Ing. LA Times? Blue Blanket, old
Fleece - new shirt - red T shirt & hat: a ba
By carriage standing over, and.  One finger
Up steadying the water bottle.

Evening, "perfect reading light," green
Light, yellow, red light.  Red light.
F, thinks, "I should take a picture!"
Looking around, red light. Flashing hand... walking, walk
Ing to the corner, "H.H. Arnason,

Oh."  An ant, screaming, climbing up F's
arm.  "Take paper, take a camera,
Throw the paper in the air, click the shutter."
The ant falls to the sidewalk, crawling to a crack.
Yellow light, red light, green light, yellow

Light: no one remembers the ant, who
Is in the crack, crawling up Los
Angeles Street, away from Second street.
F is walking to 'Savon' to buy a camer
A.  Floating paper, red light, green light.

F at 2nd Street

II

Three guys with leaf blowers and another
With a broom; slowly moving up
Los Angeles St.  Cleaning up dirt & 
Leaves in front of the hotel; no dust at five A.M.
F stands across the street watching.  A

Mockingbird has been singing all night.
F never slept.  Blowers are
Masking the singing.  F sits down next to a
Ficus tree; asphalt has been laid into the con
Crete where it has lifted and split: once 

He looks up. The building swallows F.
He's driving a car through the park
Ing lot - looking for a space; realizing he
Has missed an appointment.  He stops the car,
Double parking, opens the door - he

Has no clothes on.  A car horn blares,  F
Wakes up.  Low clouds and mist.  The leaf
Blowers are gone.  It smells like bacon and
Eggs.  F gets up and crosses the street to the brick
Wall at St. Vibiana's:  a billboard stares at him.

F at 2nd Street

I

F looks at his penis, then at his
Foot, then his wrist and fingers, then
His elbow, "concentrate" : a leaf blow
Er won't start - cord is pulled, cord is, cord is pulled...
Fruppa hupa, pull, fruppahupa

Pull... fruppahupahupa, hupa
Hupa hupa... F has a big
Nose: choking on a dry sandwich, a Belch!
Walking on a familiar piece of concrete F
Pulls out his tissues and begins to

Wipe his toes - looks up in disgust - right
Left - wipes his toes again.  Bending 
Over (must be a glass) and sniffing, sniffing.
"Roll the R," fruppahupahupa, hupa.  F
Is tired and doesn't want to

"Concentrate."  Some say, "drift way," some
Say, "lost in a resigned world,"
F looks at his penis, then at his foot,
Then his wrist and fingers: elbow itching, itching,
a bee sting.  F lifts his head, bee sting?

G at 3rd Street

III

Tensile strength - piano notes echo
Off the buildings: saxophone... Apollo flies above
A death battle; the stamp on the concrete
"McPherson 1953 Contractors" .... up a third, down and
Around minor second, minor 3rd up a
Fourth; sent to the far North: G slips and looks down.

A cigarette butt - "pick it up."
Apollo didn't think much - action - G hears a bass
Line. At the cross walk the light turns green, white
Hand blinking, blinking. G pushes her shoe against
Concrete & asphalt. A little give - giving - no,
Movement of the poured sand & cement, one

Interval; relative minor chord.
The Bminor thought rings off the stairways and up to
The room where G has been sleeping, a fire is
Starting to burn, piano banging on single
Notes, then fourths. Tensile strength disintegrates in
An electronic piano - as a
Violin. Apollo lands and sings, "pick it up, pick it up, and play it."

G at 3rd Street 

II

G looks up at the building, lights
Turned up under overhanging 30's archi
Tecture:  B say's  "o...h..." she remembers
A slight; an anger moment.  R says, "I want
A happiness meal," a bone that will
Keep me forgetting; come on... B scratches ear.

G looks up at the building a
Gain: remember - Ullyses? Listening to
Joni Mitchell in one ear - Stevie
Wonder in the other: into a hole they
Wander, the grapefruit G bought is opened.
Skin and  thumbnail - triangle slices

Of juice & meat - remember the
Old men discussing and telling the story of
The Minotaur - the string and running
Back to the entrance: the stairs lead up, away
From the floor where water and algae win,
Loving the slippery, rub, that rocks pro

Vide: G looks up and smiles - Coltrane, 1st street,
Spins off a building.

G at 3rd Street 

I

G puts her foot in the gutter.
Two ants are crawling across the street, one red, one
Black.  They cross a sprayed circle, drawn
To mark where someone would be digging: red ant
Says, "nope, nope... well I gotta say, yeah," the
Black ant says, "when, now... if you think about

Eating a hamburger," the red
Ant interrupts, "now, now, really? It's not that 
Bad when," the black ant says, "see that foot?"
"Yeah."  G puts her foot on the curb and
Sneezes, blows her nose towards the street; rain
Falls down on the red and black ant.  Both feet on

The sidewalk - G looks up and smiles:
B ant crawls along  -- R ant stops and smiles: G walks
Down the street to MacDonald's - "maybe
Some coffee?" R asks. R says, "They're going to film a
'Survivor' episode today." "oh, 
The impact of the Other," B says, " i

Want some gum," and starts the climb up the curb.
"Don't chew gum," R says.

N learns to fly

IV

A day, the sun comes up after
Dawn. N rides passenger in his truck; someone
Else drives, off at Broadway.
South past 1st to Se

Cond.  Parking in the lot, groups of
Pigeons waking up.  Cof
Fee.  Street cleaner turns on
Second. N walks to

The door at the back of  two-oh-
Seven;  The elevator to
The seventh floor, carry
Ing a cup of Cof

Fee.  Pushes the button for the
Elevator up: waits in
Minutes, the door opens
Up he goes, alone -

Pin down the space with constant working.
Assimilated into the...
Glass:  the building falls past, his
Eyes rolled back, panic.

N learns to fly

III

N leans against the truck's cab, one
Cup of coffee; 4:30 am
Thinking "work-out"
At lunch: the lift low

Ers. One window water and soap.
Reflects a person - "N" - two
cups of coffee; 5 thir
Ty am "Growing a

Stomach, Mr. N?"  Turning to look
At the eastern sky, dawn, Ju
Piter, Saturn. Back to 
The soap and water,

Squeegee: 'My life is stable, is
Wonderful,' a rope slips, a
Heartbeat; a stomach surge,
Stability.

The motor pulls the platform up to
The roof. The roof and over the 
Overhang. The wedding
Plans are now in full swing.

N Learns to fly

II

Once a nail is pounded in...
It is there: N walks to his
Garage and looks at his
Weights; his workout, his;

In the driveway are ten buckets.
Each full with water, soap
And bleach: "some creations
Are written, others

Flow along the gutters of streets."
N thinks; 'work tomorrow, to
Day,' Should forget, once
A nail is hammer

Ed in, an impression remains.
A footprint, a head print, a
Hammer head print, a cry
Ing child. When the van

Is full and one child is excluded.
A nail is pulled up, up
Out; out.  These muscles ache.
Ache.  Once a nail, once.

N learns to fly

I

The barbeque top slams shut. Shut!
N leans on the door.  N drinks
Beer,  And leans on the door.
Smoke rises up un

Der the eaves and floats into the
Den: no burrow here. N thinks,
"Those poor bastards downtown."
No hole here: detach

Ed. The meat is done and is slapped
On plates for friends to eat, one
Per... blackened with pep
Per - listening to

Metalicka; no curbing the fun,
No discord here, no abandonment
Here, there is love and friends and
Steak and beer and trust and...

Forty Two Degrees

"I'm sorry to have to tell you this,
But your son is dead."  H stood
In the street and stared at the
Sky.  One cloud. On the ground two ants climbed
Up H's shoe. Ant 1 said, "Since when are you, you

Following me?"  Leg hairs, around.  Ant 2
Says, "We are one, why is the
question?" "Don't ask," Ant 1 stomps off,
Up the leg of H. (I was dreaming.
And somewhere a note floated up from a

Pool: is it a mistake in under
Standing?)  From these yellow pads
ruled legal, a diary,
A confessional work is jotted
Down; written for a few friends or anyone?

Some understanding was lost to H.
"What did I forget to un
Derstand?" Through the pages of number
Forty three.  It is here, "A bell that
For you, must for me, too." Legal

Pad, no this is a mistake; Ant1 climbs
Onto his collar.  Looks 
Down: son dead in Pakistan, dead
In Los Angeles, or dead in New 
York, or dead in San Francisco.  It's not

A memory or a note. It's part of
The air - in the air or floating 
Down from a flue - the smoke and
Bus exhaust.  Each particle writing
Another line in the story: H walks.

Forty One Degrees

III

Now, the sky and clouds rise.
The rain stops. The light in the
Background makes the foreground negative.
Once pictures cease, at once these thoughts stop.

The time is 6am.
On assessing the asphalt;
A view, that right or wrong, can be
Disputed: "our worth, a sentiment lost." on

The steps my hands ache, hurt,
A fire is burning across the street
In a trash receptacle,
Not a can, it's open lattice, allows air

To pass; the fire is out.
"Warmth is outlawed by trash
Companies."  Now.  The walls are white and
Stark.  This isn't color.  Now.  If it's a street light?

It's a pair of head lights.
A head comes out of a window and
Yells, "SINCE YOU LOOK ANGRY..." disappears.
Down 1st Street,  the LAPD is asleep at a concrete barrier.

What's left of the living,
An arrangement of nitrogenous
Bases of DNA.
Heredity - inherited capacity to kill and kill again.

Forty One Degrees

II

This look.  This way of seeing
Isn't inexplicable.
The steps to the front door are clean, no
Leaves. This thinking on a specific point is

Removed from and
Measured.  Sliced finger
From a knife, while cutting apples.  The
Cutting is red in blood and apples.  It

Is a look.  Your eyes from
The next room - reading Ashbery.
Clouds of smoke.  A 3/4 moon in
January.  An oak leaf dropping on the

Patio - the light is
Almost, almost gone: the elm
Tree has lost a lot of leaves this winter.
Why?  My three year old mind wanders off to the

Bathroom.  Do I smell incense?
Yes and or no.  A fire?
T stood by the grass on First Street and
spoke to her invisible friend, "you got here

And then thinking you saw
Fire, some stinky incense smoke,
You got pulled up trying to cross
A power line under a plastic protector."

Forty One Degrees

Clouds of smoke.  Now is the
Beginning, though undefined.
Viewed from picture books.  It is our
Future.  "Once this opinion is related."

It is dark.  Measures of
Ourselves, expect some right.
Placed.  A block on a board: sun up,
Sun down - nothing is given up; a meaning.

Clouds of smoke. Gone and come.
It is now, and the view of
It, new to our eyes.  Slipping past a 
Door without hinges.  Gaining a look at the

Sky.  At night the stars are
Appearing.  Jet noise over
Head.  Coffee guy said this morning, "they said
On the radio that it was 9 degrees
Above freezing," I said,
"Forty-one?"  Another guy
In a gray suit looked at me. "uh?"
I laughed and thought, 'Fahrenheit or centigrade!'

2nd Street Corner - North

Bright mustard colored socks
Spread out between two legs
Attached to a body leaning
Arms back into the grass.

Face with blue glasses.
Head moving back and forth.
Back pack on the sidewalk.
A sign taped to the outside
Written in small letters, "Ravi Shankar,
'Their behavior disgusts me,' sa 
Re ga ma pa dha ni."
Clap and wave.  Signal
For the dancing shoe laces
Rising up and lurching at
Other shoes walking by,
"Do you sense one's own smallness?"
They're swinging and swaying
To a 3,2,2 rhythmic cycle,
Bend down and kiss the sidewalk:

The faces are frozen, smiling
Staring at the space between
Two buildings.  Lips red,
Eyes bright, cheeks glowing,
No words.  Walking along Aliso St.
Back to Commercial.

2nd Street Sidewalk - East

The signal changes to green.
Old dust from the windowsills
Above.  Covered in sweat,
Every facial poor (pore) plugged.
The signal changes to red,
"Oh, no smell of wit in this
Witless state, the end
Is reached in dreary fate!"
Drop a penny on the ground, no
Wit, no reflection.  The sidewalk
Slides away.  The open asphalt
Glides under.  Sails unfurled
Against the sun.  Mount 
Wilson antennas, waves of radio
Talk, "Is this, is the dust
Of earth, Is this?"
The dirt that is trapped in the gutter was
Swept out of a truck from Phoenix.
Across the intersection the light is red.
Riders waiting for the bus
Stare up the street and back to a paper 
Or back down the street.

It's an old corduroy coat.
The back is torn at the
Bottom.  Threads hang,
"Oh, is this the coat that
Returns to the earth, the
Cork that stops God's sweat?"

A water bottle sports top
In a green trash bag
Wrapped around a large
Basket.  Step off the
Curb.

2nd Street Sidewalk - West

Turn around then face west (left)
New black basketball shoes, toes
Forward on the curbs edge
Beginning a fifty yard swim
From a starting platform.
Bright blue water sparkles
In the sunlight.  Stripes to
The other end.  Stripes on the
Street.  At 3am, walking
Across the street - empty
Except for the street cleaner.
Yellow flashing lights driving
Down the wrong way turning
Around and back, "you'll get run
Over by the city truck."  It's dark.
An old tire, a car alarm,
The changing of the parking lot crew,
Three fifty to 4am.  The
Price is set for the daily workers:

Those also standing in lines.
Papers, blankets, a visa, a green card,
Another chance to live and work in hell.
A swim to the end of 400 yards.