Poem: SF Ship of Fools

SF’s counter culture beacon

expired long ago

but the misinformed keep coming

hoping for haven in a city bought and sold.

Rebels seeking sanctuary believe in legends

about commercial-free living

that never existed

Drop outs of the material world

Camped out refugees of life

some were scarred war veterans

some were abused as children

some were unmedicated crazy

and self-medicated lazy

psychedelic prophets

fool of ranting aimlessly at ghosts

empty stomachs refilled

with junk food garbage

illicit drugs and poverty

they remind me of pigeons

scavengers of our trash heap world

Summer of Love rejects

who never left the trance of utopia

eastern meditation mind flow

dancing in a ring of vibrating chants

flower children romance

LSD mind scramble

with Mary Jane’s green canopy

mellow scene puffing dream of wise folly.

SF’s over-flowing with stranded pirates

shipwrecked on lost love disasters

tricked with a fool’s gold compass

naked hippie 49ers mining philosophy.

The City mesmerized and taught us

naive passion, idealization beyond reason

even to the point of hospitalization.

We gambled our hearts stumbling through

dark midnight parks and portals

of human zoos, S & M themed

amusement dungeons,

orgies and polyamory are mainstream here

in St Francis’s Wild West liberal facade

of vegans, yogis and Mercedes Benz

driven pretend gurus and money launderers

pretending enlightenment can be sold

exchanged for sex or money.

“Grass, cash or ass” was the infamous slogan

back in the heyday glam

of free love and drop out mentality.

This rainbow city mirage

famous for gay nouveau pride

and bleeding liberal hearts

is actually packed to the border

with greedy Republican and Democrat

crusaders and hoarders of old money.

Behind the political curtain

is a faked out liberal joke.

SF’s illusion of caring is a rope a dope

This Oz is green with money bribes

and Wonderland transients cope

through science fiction’s scope

Big Brother is here and now

vagrants have no hope

they overdose on escapism.

False shamans medicine smoke

chi water wind sage fire mage

they pretend they know

the ancient wisdom of borrowed cultures

pay to live and work in a commune

but true meditation is not meant for profit

it’s a natural brain medicine

in time and space you’re boundary-less again

free to choose your mental state

but earth bound cosmonauts are sick

and polluted with nonsense

greed in excess of our senses

we strive to thrive on artificial addictions

trying to outlive our wounds

with narcissistic possession

as if we should capture and control nature

collect things and people like trophies

ending in I, not the collective understanding

of wisdom and good.

Knowledge is a kaleidoscopic diamond

of shared reality

but no one wants the truth

in San Francisco

posh young and old billionaires

drink luxury cocktails

flecked in swirled gold

their decadent lives in constant celebration

they profit from not working

in entitled generations always the master

lording over the wasteland trash

call girls in ripped clothes in decrepit alleys

while the mad impoverished

howl at the moon over subway tracks

generational tragedy of poverty

peasants and freaks toothless and tear stained

huddle in their own hated stench

like medieval time travelers of misery

until Death finally ends their life sentence.

In gilded, tech Mecca mansions

electric scooters shoot by

Strangely labeled a haven

a sanctuary city,

San Francisco is an endless sidewalk

makeshift home to the homeless

where most would ignore a dead body

thinking it’s just another passed out

skin saturated with scabs

everyday zombie hobo.

Suffering is normalized

desensitized with flare here.

Tourism profits on fantasy

techie monopolies invent new spyware

old world ruling families fund corporations

which are the new plantations of exploitation

which built this bigoted country,

massacred the natives and imported slavery

stole the natural magic and sacred respect

replaced it with gluttony with no regrets

where only the rich can afford to survive

swimming in pools of peasant’s blood

in vampiric aristocracy

psychopathic immorality

immune to compassion or feeling

raised by servant nannies in sterile wealth.

They called the original people Savages

while they mercilessly butchered their families.

On Ohlone stolen lands

is where golden gated San Francisco stands.