Here's the next in line of the San Francisco 1996 "Postcard" sonnets. Hope you enjoy it!
6/20
The sunset just looks like radioactive chicken soup
iridescent & pissed-off & splashing across the flat-top
Victorians lurking Dear Diary like water glasses
in a diner whose whole herd of stainless butterknives
will slice fluorescent light into butter & harmonicas &
Marlowe’s jukebox breakfast on another tomorrow with its odor of
sex & Ivory soap floating across the Pacific amongst
almighty Holsteins chewing & lolling like trawlers
It all looked like a vinyl tablecloth spreading a classical
picnic in the ruins of the Parthenon where Maggie’s
sipping her 5th milky espresso & the moon by then
spilling its milk across the table
spilling its milk across Marlowe who’s feeling about as bucolic
as a hospital bed sleeping it off in Dolores Park
© John Hayes 1996-2009
Although I've never been to San Francisco I feel I know Dolores Park
ReplyDeletevery well.............
'The sunset just looks like radioactive chicken soup
ReplyDeleteiridescent & pissed-off & splashing across the flat-top'
What a great opening, John, I love it, would love to hear it read, spat out.
Maggie's gotta be wired like Martin Scorsese by now!
ReplyDeleteI do indeed like it, John - and I agree with Totalfeckineejit. This calls for a podcast - maybe a project for the winter, when life slows down a bit?
ReplyDeleteHi folks: I'm back! Sorry I haven't been able to get to your comments earlier.
ReplyDeleteTony: Dolores Park is cool; there's a large old mission nearby, & the street itself is boulevard style with palm trees in the center. The park is quite lovely (as are all San Fran parks) & a bit sketchy, too (as are some SF parks).
TFE: Thanks! Perhaps I'll record these sonnets in a quiet moment.
Willow: Now that's funny!
Sandra: Thanks a lot. By the way-- when will that life slows down a bit come? But I can't complain about having a full life!