Monterey
written by: TM Arko
I saw the ghosts of John Steinbeck
And Robert Louis Stevenson
Sitting
Beneath a Cyprus tree
Down in Monterey
Stevenson smoked a pipe
Steinbeck a cigarette
I had nothing
Except
The smoke that was in
My eyes
Conquistador spirits
Walking dead divers
Pelicans flying
Otters floating
Speckled brown and green
Kelp over the rocks
Fishing boats that fell
Off of the horizon
The cacophonous sounds
Of gulls and seals
Voices and music
From the bars
And street buskers
The stench
Of crumbled canneries
Ambrosial aromas
From the sea
The wharf
The cafes
Screaming birds
Laughing waves
Whalebone sidewalks
A wall of fog
Waits for night
The sway of the scintillating
Water
Sardine shaped clouds
Robert Louis Stevenson
Turned to John Steinbeck
And said
We must be East of Eden
Steinbeck only smiled
And dreamed
Of buried treasure
- The Pain That Revisits - April 25, 2019
- On Atara Street - April 2, 2019
- What Vincent Would Paint - March 11, 2019
