Bring your cart

*a revision of an older piece*

She’s taken to washing her hair in city sprinklers. Long strands of it, in public view. What’s next? A fireman’s hydrant? The next-door neighbor’s dog’s hydrant? Where’d she come from? Pushing her cart along the streets. Life in a cart, how odd: but not-so-rare. I’ll give you this dollar, she said, if you would go in and buy me some fries. They wouldn’t let me in, she said, looking this way. Nevermind the look, I thought. Besides the sprinkler, when did you bathe last?

Downtown San Francisco, south of market, home to the homeless: reality v dreams. On the other side, the streets are filled with hoodie’d creeps, scooting in scooters to nowhere and somewhere. Radio-controlled. Connected to static, frantic cellular phones. Disconnected. Nobody looks anyone in the eye anymore. Not me, especially. But then this woman, having a sprinkler walks up and does just that. With a dollar for some fries.

Back then, she said, we were artists. With our beat poetry and psychedelic trips. Have you been to blue? Blue is a state of mind, man. It’s fingers snapping, tapping, raspy voices pontificating truths still existent but now somewhat dim, lamenting post-modern dripless candles that do not drip in shrines built to everything with plastic painted faces. Nowadays, even tears are manufactured from techno-sweat.

Across the street the hoodie’d hoods: 21st century lords. Blue was sold to multimedia gulches, manufacturing uniform experiences: uniform non-conformist, individual experiences. Of instant gratification images. Monochrome colors and plaided weekends.

I really want those fries. That’s right: fast-food fries for fast-track lives. Man, she said, can you stop long enough to put down your latte and step into my sprinkler bath? Refreshing. Have a show, go on exhibit: my life-in-a-cart IS performance art. Except nobody’s going to look you in the eye. They’re too busy watching screens and graphs. The world at your fingertips. No more moon-watching. Hurry, hurry, hurry bring your cart!