PINK

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  PINK  I just saw an old art joke --
         "PINK" in purple ink --
  A T-shirt on a sad young girl
         Stalking out of (what else?)
         A gallery, and thought
  Of the drowning man
         Trapped
                   Beneath a grate
         An inch beneath the surface.
   He breaths through a straw
         Penetrating the screen,
         Will live only if he
   Inhales slowly,
          Calms his anxiety,
                   Relaxes until
   He dies from hypothermia,
         Or -- if in the Carribean or
         The Gulf of Cortez --
   From starvation,
         But never from thirst
         Or the color pink.

Tree, dog, cat

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tree_dog_catLumbering, misshapen, looming tree, no symmetry, favorite by far, visible for miles in my flat land, shading two unlikely litter mates — dog, ugly happy thing, flabby jowls, stubby legs, marching by sister cat — two same-day born beings, carried box to box by mothers, confused, unsure finally of offspring, form & laws of inheritance — he marches beside that creature dearest in his life, who in turn leaps into air, runs beneath dog belly, rolls in plowed earth of the great shared field — these three allies standing guard against sun, assassins, and tiny jewels floating in dusty rays.

The Master Virtual Guitarist

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Blue Guitarist
My friend, Mike, is a master virtual guitarist, perhaps the best in the world. At times, his eyes half closed, lips slightly parted and smiling vaguely, he twitches his fingers in a barely perceptible way, and I know he is performing at Prince Albert Hall. And Fani, the master aficionada, gazes dreamily at her musician and listens with an invisible rose behind her ear.

False False Memory

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laserlevel

Recently, I drove oceanward on a small 2 lane highway leading, in a circuitous but ultimate way, to San Francisco. I passed an intersection which seemed familiar but also vague and unspecific. I puzzled and began to assemble a picture from fragments of memory. I had arrived in my new town 8 years ago and wanted to explore. I drove west on a country road towards the Coast Range through the rural flatness, curious only about where I was. After a few miles, I found myself in rolling hills with homes, children, pets and small farms. I was happy with this discovery, as my wife found the levelness of our new area depressing, and knew that my report of what lay nearby would cheer her. The road gradually turned and came to the very intersection I had just passed moments before.

Unfortunately, when I looked in the direction of this dimly recalled population, I saw only a thin forest of valley oaks and eucalyptus, no undulations, no  ersatz Shangrila in the depths of Yolo County. I now knew that there should only be flat farmland all the way to the mountains edge.  I had fought to put this puzzle together, and must have fused memories of events from long ago, perhaps in Salt Lake City, perhaps in Toronto. I had rationalized a sense of deja vu which, in reality, was false. I have a fertile imagination, and have done this before.

I had occasion to pass the same point several times since, and each time had the same unsettled feeling of having been there, went through the same process of assembling memories, came to the same depressing conclusion, and worried about the gradual decay of my brain. Then, a week ago, Laura accompanied me to the coast, and as we approached the intersection, I told her the story about my imaginings and poor memory. As we entered the intersection, I looked left. Previously, I had only done this after the fact. This time, I had a clear view up the exit road into the distance, and saw — rolling hills, houses, horses, children playing, with a sparse forest on both sides which fused after we passed into a green panel obscuring a remembered event I now know was real and unimagined.

anotherrollinghill

My wife does not think my memory is bad, but she does think I am mad.

Red Building of Deepest Mystery

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redMysteryBldg
A five-minute walk from my workplace lies a red building of great mystery. It is worthy of capitalization: The Red Building. I have walked around it hundreds of times in eight years and did not see it the first seven. It is accessible but guarded by taller structures. No one enters or leaves. A view through the windows shows abandoned lab benches, hoods and offices, covered with dust. No bodies are visible, at least not directly. It is unacknowledged — the campus map pretends it is a wing of an adjacent edifice, which it is assuredly not. It is a place of someone’s fear, an unsettling enigma, a place of desperate ignorance.

Aerial View

Bees

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Today, I visited bees, perhaps a dozen varieties, including a 4 foot ceramic one of alien and exciting coloration. “Welcome to our garden!”, said a kindly man of academic beard, who warned of little cups of colored liquid on the paths. I avoided them adroitly, but did notice varying numbers of dead bees therein. Bee Haven, while an idyllic refuge for sober hard workers, capitally punishes its drunkards.

The Artist

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My son, Aelric, was an artist for four years and has since graduated to other pursuits (our and the world’s loss!). He was brilliant, creative and fast. His pallette was primaries plus black and white, mainly acrylic, occasionally tempera.

He used only a large one-inch flat brush and a small round brush whose handle was employed more than its fibers. He painted canvas, masonite, all kinds of paper, and even sticks. His works can be found on walls, desks and cards all around the world, as well as a few right here.

He reveled in color and was fearless in its application, with no pretense of representation. The act of painting was purely performance — he loved his audience and kept a constant commentary as he layered with abandon.

He set only one rule — he was done at the request of the audience. Without this subtle intervention, the continually added color gradually merged into an amorphous mass of gray.

Victor Vasarely gave us Op Art, Andy Warhol, Pop Art, and Aelric Kofoid, Stop Art.

Tide Mall

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I’m in a bright, shiny, synthetic mall, surrounded by money and Muzak, while outside are blue skies and brilliant sun, and I think of La Jolla tide pools, swimming with my brother through clouds of confused anchovies smashing into our legs in a frenzy to return to deeper waters before the tide drops even more and traps them, where they don’t want to be.

Eureka

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Not a day went by that my parents didn’t hate Eureka. The cold, the damp, the drizzle, the smells of fishing and wood mills were utterly foreign to their San Diego-driven view of the universe. When I breath its sulfur and anchovie essence, I once again race my bike through a stinging cloud of droplets, excited, happy to reach Stubby’s birthday party in the mud and slippery green grass.

My Beautiful Crow

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Crows, I am told, can tell us apart with exquisite ease and, of course, have no problems with each other, whereas we — even the most skilled corvidologists — are unable to distinguish one of them from another in any subtle and automatic way. Except for me — my beautiful crow is the one that places the walnut in the road when she sees me rushing to work, caws and flaps in the air as I pass, and glides gracefully to the meats exposed by my tires. She is confident of my intentions and is, in turn, faithful. She knows me regardless of conveyance, and ignores all other vehicles, which would as soon hit her as the nuts. It is a strange affection and if I were a crow, I would go out of my way to dine with her as often as possible.