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.