* * * *
SAN FRANCISCO
4:45 in the afternoon
a weekday
umbrellas
briefcases
and, oh the noise.
but the cool air
feels good
as I venture
up - up & up
California Street
to an amazing corner.
Old St. Mary's Cathedral!
McDonald's Burgers!
(Happy Meal 1.99!)
A pagoda-topped restaurant.
And a shop with the sign
"imperial fashions".
I feel as though
I'm in a foreign country.
Hey!
I am in a foreign Country!
Perhaps, more than one.
Chinatown.
Tourists.
Businesspeople.
This unbelievable merging
human madness.
I find an empty
concrete bench
out of the rain.
I look up at countless
windowed
layers of buildings
and
think of
earthquakes.
* * *
(c)1999, M.L. Nemir