millennium disaster headlines

EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it!
Al-Qaeda to attack Petroleos Mexicanos!

local newspapers front page

another pack of buzzing valent clones
these words wham bam thank you ma'am muse time
leaning kismet asteroid millennial earth icecaps melting apocalypse
atomic anti-christ hidden imam get'em while they're hot, red hot, juicy red hot dogs!

Tere bought her own hot
dog at the corner stand last night
after we got back from the poetry and art evening
it was midnight que delicia what a delight

Am still so very much full of poetry and art and she and Carlota got together and went to meet me at the event where I was to be reading and yes I read but first I was outside for a while waiting for them at the narrow diagonal corner

in the mouth of Jhonson canyon (yes it is spelled like that here)
where Constitution avenue breaks into triangle busy streets
that climb up the hills and into the little canyon

you can tell by the shape of the street and the great, high sidewalks
that this street becomes a raging river
in the rainstorms

and I was also waiting for David on the peak of that corner in a little nook where the three-foot high sidewalk two steep steps up from the street
where the high sidewalk bends around a huge acute angle and the three-way stop lights struggle to funnel the traffic into and out of the canyons
little ragged canyons pierced with cement staircases and old houses

thanking God this ain't a main street, no
this is old, inner city Tijuana, architecture from
the classic junque period of the 40s and 60s when the city began to boom from

U.S. war again and again scratching its way up the hillside
while tens of thousands of Mexicans

trampoline jumping up from the south
("trampoline" is one of T.J.'s nicknames, yes)
decided whether to cross over and work for gabacho americanos

or stay here in the border city and maybe, just maybe
not have to always say in English they were one hundred percent
because their children grew up speaking Spanish every day, not English, and...

but there's a cultural and political debate beyond my powers or courtesy

so anyway up the diagonal street to the right is the entrance to LA Cetto winery right in town in the canyon they have a shop and tasting bar and tours and a big room for events and also down underground the room called "la cava" and that is where Ramón catered a dinner a few years ago when I worked to help him serve dinner and then wrote and that

exactly this is where the volunteer event-organizing group "el puente"
held their anniversary celebration last night yes and I had invited three friends
and two came but I wasn't sure they knew where it was

so anyway I stood down there on the corner waiting and waiting and gazing into the landscape, studying the crumbling hills, watching the roaring traffic but David never showed or at least I never saw him there maybe he came and couldn't find me reading down in the cave in the basement it was a winery yes but maybe it was much worse

maybe he had so much frecking work he just wanted to go home or go sit in the bar
and well that's that but I missed him and hope he is ok

anyway the two ladies had already come so when I went back in there there they were yes my Tere and Charlotte came and we sat around drinking LA Cetto wine first they gave us sparkling sweet white and then a rather straightforward cabernet and eventually we all went downstairs into the cave la cava pues and the other poets and I each read our poetry to a very appreciative audience

and I of course the clown and court jester at heart I had to push the envelope just a little and used my little hand puppet I found of a zebra in the streetmarket it is perfect looks just like the zebra-painted burros of Tijuana's revolution avenue and Pepe Vasquez told me a better name for them than my name (I called them Zeburros but he now has named them Burrebras which damnit does sound better oh well)

anyway it looks like this image I photoshopped from a couple pictures David took several years ago