Ben Myers
Only Tourists Call It 'Frisco
From Fisherman’s Wharf where the sea air smells
like a graveyard of wide-eyed, floating, listless cod heads
you can see Alcatraz, that symbol of American
justice and madness and cruelty.
Machine Gun Kelly, Alphonso Capone,
who can forget The Birdman out there
with nothing but time and contraband
worms on his hands?
Over to our right, sea lions honking for the tourists
playing dumb, eating clam chowder with one hand
from bowls fashioned from loaves of bread,
taking pictures with the other.
A make-shift booth sells T-shirts that say
“I survived The Rock!”, but I didn’t so
I don’t buy one and instead take a tram that’s steered
by a man who has never read Jack London.
Page(s) 73
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