SAN FRAN
…
So many pieces of the puzzle, there is no need to hide
but they were lost, caught in nets on Pier 39
Like an unfaithful son on the day of his bride
the colours of this city run and they rhyme
Pollock might say its a bit of a daub
until each piece he numbered
Pasted my memories in a red, paper book
there, all bands all should have names like Doctor Hook,
Flying Burrito Brothers, Jefferson Airplane
Hate was spelt Haight in that part of town
and the clever kids all wore a Berkeley frown
Nathalia my friend she dressed in a sexy gown
We walked for miles up and down and there
across the green in pastel colours
that row of little houses, little boxes
A little Malvina Milder/Reynolds maybe loved
when she was a small Jewish daughter
wandered into the famous Chinese quarter
Union Square and Macy’s, the photo’s are coming fast
We take a trip out to the Bridge
don’t drive too fast or blink, in this mist
even International Red will blur
and that massive Bay is slipping past
No time for Vertigo or to take a Bullitt for the team
In hippie land, now a spiring concrete forest,
or among those massive Redwoods
on the other side, its still the best place you can dream
If little cable cars don’t quite drive you to the stars
if your tired hop on, the corporation
will not charge you until you sing Your Song
The corporation will not warn you of the people down below
the street of shame where each dog born had a different name
yet now in cardboard, rags and jumble they sound the plain same
Step out on the street over homes and yet your room was cute
high-ceilinged estate, ornamental cornice,
bed linen tasteful, great, without a crease,
Air conditioned, sound-proofed, high windows barred
you could be living now on Mars
except your worried as you walk the line
Those inhabitants of boxes down the lane
those aliens of shame
will get in your face again
let the booze loose
exhalate their pain
So we sat one night in John’s Grill to consider where we’d been
what we had seen, with 2 free glasses of water
edenbraytoday
17.11.2020
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its a bailey .. . sandals
.. . and while we are on the subject of mothers did i mention that my mum mammy mater mother mummy was the best ever ◉ for children growing up in the fifties the mother father parental pairing was still the accepted norm within pretty much the whole of western culture ◉ in british society the mothers matriarchal position was still paramount ◉ as a child i was never aware of any overt sexism ◉ we just accepted the roles our parents played as distinct not necessarily superior or inferior ◉ in these stripped down personal memoirs it is not my purpose to comment on modern gender politics but simply to tell things as i found them ◉ i have some early memories as an under 5 that some find surprising ◉ for instance i can clearly remember our next door neighbour mrs iffel talking baby mumbo jumbo to me while i lay in my pram and also the softness of my blankets ◉ i can also remember queuing with my mother outside a hall behind our local swimming baths one cold day in sunshine ◉ once inside my mother collected two flat medicine style bottles with corks containing natural squeezed orange juice and a jar of virol malt extract that were supplied free of charge using ration books until they were terminated in July 1954 ◉ that fact alone places my recollection and my age at under 3 years ◉ one memory i do not recall however that concerned my mother she would often retell as it had made her feel guilty ◉ one day she had left me in my pram outside the local greengrocers and walked nearly 2 miles home before realising she had left me behind ◉ unsurprisingly she had panicked and hastily returned to find me sleeping soundly in my pram on a lazy summers day in the surrey village where we lived ◉ i never blamed my mother and grew kind of proud of her confession ◉ ironically life gave her the opportunity to balance up that spot of negligence a few years later at almost the very same spot where she had left me sleeping in my pram ◉ she had been shopping in boots the chemists the shop adjacent to the greengrocers where my mother had left me 7 years previously ◉ i was returning from primary school early one evening at age 8 years as children did in 1959 ◉ on the day in question i had chosen to walk with 2 friends through the woods ◉ i would leave them at the corner of the village and journey on alone through the park to our home ◉ as we reached the place where we normally parted we found a large number of trees had been felled quite recently chopped up and burnt in a large fire that measured around 30 feet in circumference ◉ the bonfire seemed burnt out and dormant although it had left a huge circle of white ash ◉ there were no barriers or warning signs ◉ i suppose i was showing off as i rushed into the circle of dusty cinders sending a shower of silver flakes up into the hot sunny afternoon haze ◉ my friends laughed at my bravado ◉ i rushed past the cold extremities of the fire toward the neucleus suddenly aware that my feet were strangely warming ◉ i arrested my crazy dash on reaching the centre of the bonfires residue anguished as i was aware of intense sparks of heat penetrating the cut holes in my children’s buckled sandals ◉ i glanced down in horror at my sandalled feet now nestling deep inside the silver piecrust exterior and encased by angry red and orange coals of fire ◉ small blue and silver flames licked at my white ankle socks ◉ inevitably i screamed and ran for the safety of the woodland floor ◉ i was sobbing with the shock of my personal misfortune and painful burns while my friends offered kids kind of palliative advice stressing I should get home fast while also berating me for my foolish antics ◉ easy to be wise after the event guys ◉ my sobbing continued as i limped painfully in the general direction of our home deciding to take an impromptu route through the village ◉ i was scared and had no wish to be alone so i limped painfully up the road toward where the road met the high street ◉ the junction corner was where boots the chemist was situated ◉ at this moment my mother exited boots the chemist as if on cue ◉ with her purchases completed she planned to walk home ◉ she stated later that she had been suddenly overwhelmed by a desire to turn left out the store and proceed down the adjacent road towards the park ◉ she could not explain her actions as she never used that road and it took the opposite direction to home ◉ yet she proceeded down the road and recognising the sound of a child crying she hurried to help ◉ miraculously she was confronted by her own distressed son ◉ it was a remarkable and unforgettable mother son moment we often spoke of ◉
… its a bailey .. . 4 december 2020 .. . edenbraytoday
This picture shows me a few weeks after the bonfire incident with my older brother Martin on holiday in Littlehampton still nursing bandaged feet due to the burns I suffered
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