US- 29 Sea Gulls on the Sun Deck

--Two sea gulls have been loitering on the sun deck of
the DLI's fitness center for days.

Way from the ocean's salty waves
Two seagulls have come to play
They peep into the gym
Watching us in exercise
Their curious eyes never blink
Sometimes they dance like cranes
And I think they are excited
Or also wish to participate
In the body shaping business

Only later, from another angle
Do I find what they are up to
Their flat brain can never figure out
Why there are also two gulls in the glass door
They try to peck on them, and they peck back
Like NMD, missile to missile, precise and effective
They jump up, hoping to out-jump them
The birds on the other side jump as high
They position themselves strategically
Trying to attack with victory
But they always bump into their foes
Breast to breast

Or maybe they are just narcissistic
Enjoying their clean and white reflection
Like human beings who know the importance
Of grooming and make-ups

Separated by the glass door and windows
I can not understand the birds' folly or fun
I always assume they are like us
And try to greet them with a knock on the glass
Or a throw of my towel at them
That must have created a horror in their eye
For how can they understand why
Their graceful counterparts will suddenly change
Into a shapeless flash of hairy white?

Thus is the gap between human and animal
Sometimes among people it is no less so
In others we see the reflection of ourselves
And with our intelligence, we think we think alike
But often what we assume turn out to be wrong
And we cannot talk, much less getting along

US-30 Sunday Afternoon at Grocery Store

US-30 Sunday Afternoon at Grocery Store

The summer sun is hesitating to yield
To the coming cool night of the bay
While traffic are deserting the streets
I stroll in the spacious Ralph

It is Sunday, a day to kill the unwanted time
In this small town that offers little past-time
Much like a big city where I was crippled by transportation
Food mart offers the only space for consuming time

Wandering back and forth I watch people more than I do the food
Old and young, men and women, white and non-white
I watch how a corner of their life
Unfolds in their loaded carts

I watch how parents carry their young
In the carts, together with the foods they buy
I watch how cashiers greet variety with monotony
Always the same business courtesy, warm and not

Someone gave up some ice cream the last minute
Before entering the cashier lane. It sits there, un-refrigerated
A black woman smiled at it. I looked at it
And we looked at each other and smiled more

Yet it was just a box of ice cream cones, we found later
And we not only smiled, but also exchanged words
"No wonder." said she," If it were ice cream it would
long have turned into water." "Oh, sure,"  we laughed again

A rare moment of exchange with strangers
Brightens an otherwise dull routine day

Earlier, at a Latino food mart
I asked about a big yellowish cake-like thing
No hablo Ingles, No comprehendo
I suddenly felt the pain of language gap
Finally, a muchacho gave me a sample
It is pig skin

At a Latino mart next door, a muchacha
With round big face and round big eyes
Has the same name as a Mexican soap opera---
Jesenia.
A soap opera that grabbed so many Chinese decades ago
When it was shown in Chinese

I buy Latino cookies at 20 cents each there
And I pay at her place, trying my limited
Spanish:"
Hola, Gracias, Hasta luego!"
And she smiles back with two dimples that reminds me Of the song Billy Boy

Those are the only things that suggest
That there is life here, real life
Not the shiny art galleries of Carmel
So neat, so unreal, so commercial