Dystopia Revealed

La ciudad del oro--the City of Gold.   Golgotha shining on a hill.   Upscale and retail reaching for the sky.   The well-dressed, well-groomed and deodorized denizens trolling for beads, baubles and babes.   I love the nightlife, I love to boogie, I love to shop till I drop, so please don't talk about love tonight.   Love thy neighbor?   Only if he or she is in my same weight class.   They say the poor, like taxes, will always be with us?   But ideally out of sight and out of mind and out of my hair.   The best place for those unfortunate devils is the Graybar Hotel where three hots and a cot are virtually guaranteed.

Don't try to appeal to my jaded sense of humanity while I'm enthroned in my $500,000, 1500 sq ft pleasure dome that even Kubla Khan would envy.   From my eyrie perched high above the hoi polloi I can only direct my idle thoughts to wondering how far the splatter would scatter should I go into my Icarus routine?   Oh honey, where did you put my wax wings?

Swimming in silence

RICCARLO SAID OPEN OUT YOUR MIND
In Utopia everybody dies at home with a loved one on each 
side holding hands
There's music at the swimming pool
But when you enter the water
It all disappears    
(the music stops)
Body parting water
Leaving trails
Lines
Wake behind
Imprint of body growing in 2 directions at one
Forward back
At each stroke
Invisible self moving in other direction
When you enter the water
The music disappears.  
Laps later
Thought is gone.
On bike to the swim pool
Paramedics each side
Wheel
Beautiful
Frail
Old person
In silence
Thought
Breath.

THE UTOPIAN FOOD BANK

Here in Skid Row we have a Food Bank that incorporates the corrupting tendencies of our culture while attempting to do some good. The same greedy values that undermine us as a people, selfishness… envy… suspicion and favoritism, helps make participation in the Skid Row Food Bank a demeaning experience.

The Utopian Food Bank will not have any attendants or monitors, checkout counters or security measures. I see a huge unattended glass and brick storehouse, with a wide walkway entrance leading into a palace of many delights. People are smiling and chatting, as they stroll merrily among rows of their favorite things to eat. Others hurry to and fro, seeking to rush home and prepare a special meal. The children's faces hum a happy song as they skip up to momma's shopping cart and empty their special treasures into the family wagon. Dad looks for the meat to barbeque this weekend as mom snoops in the bakery. Not a sharp word is heard.

No one is standing over us counting our bounty as we head for home. We came and got our fill, not an allotment where some authority figure decides my rightful dole. Everyone's belly gets filled because we have a right to eat! Taste buds for the exotic and the ordinary are satiated, candies for the kids, fruit and juices for the baby, Dutch chocolate for Ms. Henriette and momma's fried chicken for me.

Shopping carts filled, we smile at our comrades as we take our leave until next time. EAT! DRINK! BE MERRY! LIFE IS INDEED GOOD FOR ALL.

Homeless problem
Transitional Housing
Residents 

Homeless problem, homeless problem.... I keep hearing about the homeless problem. What about the homeless solution? I rarely hear those words - homeless solution. I hear about temporary solutions (bandaids if you will) like transitional housing, SRO's, etc. What exactly and how effective are these bandaids? Especially when it seems that a lot of these bandaids are being changed into regular apartments or something more lucrative for the owner. How effective is it to give money to people on the 1st if it's going to be all gone by the 2nd? Accountability. Where is the accountability? Where are the solutions? All of what I hear is just designed to keep people dependent and only to deal with the problem not to solve it.

Demoralized, dehumanized, degraded, downtrodden, scared, despair, hopeless, helpless, misunderstood, hurt, broken, victimized, depression, illness. Patient dumping, people dumping, food dumping, trash dumping. Homeless solution. Outreach. Talk to me. See where I'm coming from and where I'm going before your judgment is made. If I need help mentally help me. A lot of people who choose to sleep on the sidewalk have mental illnesses or certain addictions. Ask me how I feel about having to pay a quarter to pee when I need every bit of the money that I do get. Shouldn't we all get to pee for free? What's the answer?

My ideal world –

Mad is banded as light and our minds get quiet as we use no and know and know. Forgetting your coat and touching a rose. You walk outside and meaning comes as a nite that fills and human compassion and this past and drums and so and my and make and happy hear and they let and you are you and your stop moves out to make till a destiny.

Someone passes something you need and your pit does not feel what ugly has and your hands do not feel what ugly has and someone hands you a rose your smile goads and there is nothing to trade. Trees lose their leaves and your feet are most still and so has to feel. My heart is plant and my place is not and my cite finds nothing. Dreary running nowhere, my eyes are somewhere and I don't pan to say goodbye.

Utopia

Setting up a system where all involved will share his or her possessions for the common good wherefore no one is left out with common and practical needs. Food, medicines, talents, knowledge or wisdom. A coming together for preservation and survival, good health and peace of mind, body and spirit. A system of no boundaries that would keep anyone from receiving the necessities of life. Creating an atmosphere of peace, joy, love and true security among all.

Utopia: no boundaries, open free for the taking, free for expressing, a system self supporting, self sufficient.

Utopia in this day and age is a welcomed concept to live and share.