Climbing The Hill: San Francisco

Motorcycle sideways glance.
Wolf onboard licks his lips.
He is playing music
From a different decade.
Denim, not leather.
Indian not Harley. 
Threatening, but hardly,
Not that it matters whether
Or not he rides that way:
They all end up there in
The end or else they go
To ground...

...Liquor store quietly waiting,
An open invitation,
Has all the lights off,
Yet the door is open. 
Ain't that the way it 
Always goes? -
Forever downhill
Faster than it rose...
Climbing the inclination
Leads to ethanol
Damnation.
White port and Thunderbird,
Bitter Cruzan but it is no
Plan.......
So I cross the road...

Rich hotel over skyline
Stop Asian hate signs
Old man sighs:
His cheap tee shirt says 
"Money!" 
His face reads
Defeat. 
Fire escape to the skies
Studio for rent - 
Call 415...for the opportunity
To be offended at the 
Inflated cost of shelter
In this city where
Cascade flags dangerous 
Perch on a facade
Built for tourists
And movers
Not shakers. 
Man lurches
Woman cries
Blue skies....

San Fran tourists in 
Golden State shirts
Take photographs
Outside City Lights
Swapping places
Gurning faces
Outside windows
Holding snapshots
From a time
When this was the
Place to be for words
Not pictures. 

Man wears beanie
I wonder who he hurt
Woman walks dog
Dog sniffs tree
Messages spread
Invisibly..
Spread love
Cliche smears
Idealistic bullshit 
All the way down where the
Powell and Hyde 
Trolley rolls....

...Carrying esplanade 
Day walkers, hot shots
Big talkers...
Woman up ahead
Had the look of
Someone on the 
Edge of a crack
She might fall thru.
There is a profound lack
Of reason
In this season
Of the storms.
Overly happy 80s
Music plays
At a camera joint
That sells dated
Irrelevancies to
People with cell phones.

The sea is always to the right
Or else up ahead.
I am always alive
Until I am dead. 
The bridges a solid
Reminder that I sit 
On a peninsula. 
Did I feel the ground shake
If not now, then sometime
Later....

The breeze felt so good 
On the back of my neck
As the sweat evaporated.
Why did I lose my mind
And try to climb up Mason?
Sweet Mason of silence.
Sweet Mason of no mercy.
Sweet Mason beyond the 
Window pane. 
Did I cross the line?
Does it matter?
Is there anything left
In the city to 
Mine?