trip to San Diego

1.



the trolley stops at 12th & imperial
we walk over to the other line

take it one stop to gaslamp
walk up fifth

duck through Dick's last resort

		this bar has been here since the 1970s, my love
		they were one of the first to come change the environment
		of the gaslamp from drug addicts, alcoholics and homeless
		into wild party madness and sports bar drinking

		other bars and trendy restaurants have come
		and gone, but Dick's is still here

		still crazy after all these years

oh look, she says, everything's 
all decked out for... what day is it?
how do you call it...?

		¿san patricio, mi amor?

yes, that's it

little paper shamrocks everywhere
everyone wearing green

soembody's giving out green beads
later we will hear it be

Dick's itself

I remember seeing one of their "big ass beer"
glasses for sale in my neighborhood street market

the kids outside are all decked in bagggggggy hang-low shorts
and droopy t-shirts

even thirty-something years old and more
babbling into cell phones and

slang

	my God, I AM SO DISCONNECTED from all this

	but say IT to no one in nothing no voice aloud no
	only my most secret.private thoughts bla bla blog

YET there be somehow a 
strange thrill of pleasure to be walking
my friend, my woman, my love, my last partner in life

			la ultima, pues

on a private walking tour of the gaslamp
she admires re-furbished victorian architecture

		this was the original backbone, the heart
		of "new" san diego in the 1880s

		and then, at the turn of the century, in the 'teens
		and twenties, the heart of downtown moved 

		up to broadway leaving all these old buildings 
		on
		lower 5th 
				half-abandoned, turned

		into the haunts of alcoholics and beggars
		over there is where I saw "deep throat"

		that is how so many of them survived
		after	they lost the economic power

		of money they used to have
		a hundred years before

		until the reconstruction ideology 
		began in	the 1970s and 1980s




2.


take the trolley from "new town" to old town
walk up a dirt path into the cute little
state	historic	park		zone

she goes into shop after show
I sit on the bench outside and meditate

on the old plaza
didn't there used to be
		e u c a l y p t u s

			I ask a woman in 1800s dress

yes, she says, they cut them all down a couple years ago
after one fell and killed a lady over there

the dark secrets of California style history
disneyland-copy 

no, more like old Columbia
yes





				and then we go into the "white house"
				of ancient San Diego

				la casa de estudillo
	"Ramona's Marriage Place"

									N O T



fiction



			Oh, Daniel, this is so beautiful, exactly
			like I have always dreamed my house should

	be


		rooms around an open patio




						ah, yes...











we eat delicious hamburgers at the corner













3.



	take the trolley on from old town to san diego state
	go to a recital

	the senior recital of my son J
	two hours of music

	it is hard to believe all these singers
	and musicians are only students

	they are so very very excellent
	testimony to the high quality of the music program @ State

	and my son's writing...

	and my son's music writing....

	oh my God 



	oh


			there are no words.

		I weep.		I smile.		I burst with pride for him.


Oh yes.



		Oh my, yes.





					And when he sang, my heart broke.



		By the waters of Babylon there we sat down 
		and yeah we wept when we remembered Zion...









forget the old chestnut version we babyboomers heard forty years ago
this is completely new
				desperate

						violent

							heart - rending


				t r a g i c	.



.............................................................................




AND THEN
					he even wrote the "muzac" for the intemission







I create a new word
				" j u d e z a k "












			and then he conducts a chamber orchestra in his work


	the song of Jubal








		wow... there he is... conducting,


							c o n d u c t i n g
						an orchestra of winds and percussion and harp











oh my		oh  my				o h	v e r y		m y



no. not mine.

				His.

						Congratulations, J. Very very well done.


Excellent show. Wonderful music.