Three Poems By Gerard Sarnat
COVID, George Floyd, Trump aside
this is that glorious time of year,
just before it gets dry, when local cherry
orchards used to flood outdoor roadside stands
but now the once modest real estate has become home
to concrete, glass and aluminum Silicon Valley behemoths
so we mostly obtain our Bings and Rainiers from Washington State.
This is a much less glorious time of year
for our forest’s robin population, which done
with mating season seems to constantly be drunk
on fermented wild black or juniper or pyracantha berries
-- combined with exactly wrong light conditions, leading some of them
not to notice closed windows but instead seem attracted to their own reflections
as they once again clunk heads against panes trying to fly into master bathroom mirrors.
San Francisco September 2020
On The Beach Nuclear Summer Preview?
Ashes, ashes, we all fall down
(which maybe was in LBJ’s
anti-Goldwater “Daisy” ad)
-- from Ring Around The Rosie
Corona, choke, smoke
so thick can chew it
“I can’t breath”
has become
the theme
of 2020.
George Floyd Waves
During black summer 2020 current climate crisis --
this tsunami of pushback versus militarized cops
-- with such iconic figures as once Dixie Chicks
and Aunt Jemima Biscuit Mix trying to rebrand,
aware of the massively popular disapprobation
for our cultural misappropriation; I flashback
to when every morning (at whose insistence?),
we “innocently” dressed 1st grandson in police
man’s outfit, made damn sure we got badges,
cap -- plus particularly all weapon equipment
exactly right; but without consideration what
impact it might have on some other children
inside that not-quite totally white pre-school.
Gerard Sarnat won San Francisco Poetry’s 2020 Contest, the Poetry in the Arts First Place Award plus the Dorfman Prize, and has been nominated for handfuls of recent Pushcarts plus Best of the Net Awards. Gerry is widely published including in Gargoyle, Main Street Rag, New Delta Review, Brooklyn Review, San Francisco Magazine, The Los Angeles Review, and The New York Times as well as by Harvard, Stanford, Chicago and Columbia presses. He’s authored the collections Homeless Chronicles (2010), Disputes (2012), 17s (2014), Melting the Ice King (2016). Gerry is a physician who’s built and staffed clinics for the marginalized, as well as a Stanford professor and healthcare CEO. Currently he is devoting energy/ resources to deal with global warming. Gerry’s been married since 1969 with three kids plus six grandsons, and is looking forward to future granddaughters. For more info on Gerard view gerardsarnat.com