in heaven everything is fine

fingers stained with chain grease; stained knuckles and stained teeth.

in the meatpacking district we got picked up by an african cabbie. he was sweating and had yellow eyes. i saw a policeman in a yamacha hassling a cross dresser with a crucifix necklace. they had buildings upon buildings lining steel canyons with garbage piling from the gutters and steam rising from metal grates in the sidewalk. i'll go back one day. not soon, but eventually.

i've been here for a month. we flew back into california on fire. a real welcome home treat. it should be a marquee event, a season opener. "come see the lush state of california burn from the bottom up." limited time offer. wildfires like the traveling circus. 30 days of summer heat in the autumn months.

he really was.

rally, really, ratty, rally

it was onehundredandfour degrees out this late morning. we stood in a group and protested, they yelled, we yelled back. the volley of praises in a call and response from the teachers to the students to the honking drivers. heat and sweat. per the usual. mind you, it's late september we're still sweating in the burning sun. the unions came out, the local 409's and the local 133's came out. a coalition of religious workers led a prayer while a man pounded a middle eastern drum. we held signs, posters, bullhorns, wheatpaste, markers. screaming in the heat. screaming in the sun. we sat on our bikes under a tree and felt the heat ply through the dried leaves. rally in a burning autumn. really ratty.

what a pretty couple

these dancing pigs escort each other in a sweaty sashay up a forget road. it's broad daylight. brash and brazen they tango across lanes, ever so often flashing a light or sounding an indecent siren. these secret lovers hide down dark roads, they emerge only to arrest and harass then sink away. they're voyeurs and saviors and criminals.

locked up, thrown away, arrested. i've been in a 400 square foot cell these summer months. i've forget myself and spent the days gazing at a fourty eight star'd flag. old glory, old glorified.