San Francisco Has Been PoisonedRereading Tales of the City it struck me.San Francisco has been poisoned. Famous as the place to go, "With flowers in your hair," During "The Summer of Love." It was the place where Harvey Milk Wanted to recruit you To the cause of Social Justice. Kids came there To live on the cheap And find liberation From how it was and always would be Back home. It was a revolution But it came with conflicts and costs. Harvey Milk stood up to Anita Bryant And was martyred for it. The murderer got off on a plea of "The twinkies made me do it." But later killed himself Probably over his own conflicts. The sexual revolution Was also fertile ground for AIDS. And while the "ways back home" Still denied the Elephant of Death in the room, San Franciscans died in droves And tried to teach the world to care. Yet, Even through that struggle, The gritty, revolution of body and mind Marched on. Like many "girls from Cleveland," I came to "The Holy Land" To sip the cup Of psycho-social sexual liberation. Friends of mine emigrated, But I only visited -- The Annual Pilgrimage. How wonderful to walk The Castro naked. Visiting shops and hanging out While "it all" did hang out. Indeed the local naturists Organized brunches And visits to rather nice wine bars All in the buff. What a surprise to look there now And see the changes. Money was the poison. If the Milk story Is to be believed, The moneyed A-Gays Wanted nothing to do With Harvey's bare knuckle fight. Thirty years later, The naturist, body freedom activists Were bad-faith negotiated Into obscurity and Re-institutionalized hassles. Naked in the restaurants of the Castro Doesn't happen any more. My SF emigree friends, Many of them got in on the ground floor And made it big! Others found themselves on a treadmill. Toiling at companies run by The Morally Handicapped. Finally managing to keep a job But struggling to keep pace With the rising cost of living. Others simply left. My Annual Pilgrimage? Why bother? Piece by piece I'm assembling An emancipated life With an emancipated husband And almost enough Freedom from clothes. Now it costs too much to live there And too much to go there. Your home and your car Get broken into regularly By the poor folks Stuck in the quicksand That was always there But made worse, not better As Money -- Prosperity without compassion Made San Francisco The place to escape Instead of the place to go. |
| 28 May 2021 | |
| by Bill Cattey |