MEMORIES OF VENICE

Tatiana wrapped in a pink down comforter, in front of Public Storage, listening to classical music

Riding a super small wave on my big foamy board and feeling on top of the world

Palm trees bending into an unforgiving wind

Toothy smiles on big blue pitbull faces

The whoosh of skateboards passing by

Snakeman in his speedo, wearing red devil horns

Harry Perry on skates, turban on his head, amplifier on his back

My 3 year old son, swinging in the sandy park screaming “There’s imagination in my penis!”

A family of ducks crossing Venice boulevard

Tiny crabs hunker down as waves crash over the rocks

An orange canoe tied to a dock in the canals

Pink hair, blue hair, turquoise, and chrome,

Johnny Chronic in his wheelchair with a sign that says “Will Work for Weed”

A warm vegan burrito for a homeless man

3 Tombstones buried under an apartment on Riviera Street

V13s and the Shoreline Crips, the staccato pop of gunfire from the Hood

Dennis Hopper in Boys Market at 1 Am with 3 containers of Yoplait Strawberry yogurt in his shopping cart.

Blue cocktails and salsa dancing at Marcellas house at sunset on Horizon

Staying up all night at Hot Cuts Hair Salon, drinking brandy and cutting hair

Regretting blue hair in the morning

Artists and writers and freak shows and buskers

Roller skating on acid, on the bike path, 4th of July, Bam, whiz, Crack crack crack! showers of color and trails of light, whoosh, whoosh, shoosh, “We are going so fast!” yelled Catherine.

We weren’t.

Jim Morrison, forever young and sexy, painted on a wall

The #5 plate, fried, with churros and onion rings

The pop pop pop of the paddle ball courts

An early morning paddle out in the fog, for a fallen homie, ashes scattered, flowers in the water his name and image graffitied on a wall

Longboards on the sand, wet suits and zinc oxide

H.O.T. House of Terriyaki Donut, best breakfast in town.

Crack heads in the alley, police chopper overhead

Fred Ward locked out on his balconey

Warm nights, drinking tequila, skinny dipping in the ocean

Seagulls stealing peanut butter sandwiches and bags of chips

Dolphins so close you can see their eyes

Blue green water, still like a lake, and clear to the ocean floor

Richard in his green Chevy Blazer parked behind Golds gym, reading The Untethered Soul”

Tony, the homeless mechanic, tools scattered on the street, fixing my car door

A red naugahyde booth at LA Cabana at 2:30 AM

Fresh sourdough bread from Pioneer Boulangerie

The smell of urine and trash and insence

A white beach cruiser named Floyd.

Pumpkin, the orange cat, in her silver airstream cat trailer

Ray Rae and Jimmy Hendrix

5 AM, dark and quiet, first surfers in the water

Monster waves, from a dark grey angry ocean knocking the bathroom off the pier

Robes of orange twirling, dancing, “Hare Krishna Hare Hare”

Tourists and gypsies, runaways and addicts

Venice