San Francisco’s Past

San Francisco’s past

If not remembered 

Years, decades, events, passed

Like fog kept out and shuttered 

Not hard to see the streets

If eyes open 

An interest in what life meets

Memories bake as in an oven 

Many didn’t want to see

Nothing but beauty of the sea

And the City next to it 

Being new a tiny bit by new tippy tips

Being old mostly

Even with a history then

That had its side ghostly

But some remembered when

Seals, a baseball team, did bat

Fishing boats at Fishermans Wharf did park,

Machine shops for a marine industry that was fat,

Packing plants had meat for diners in restaurants marked.

Trains rolled into Second and Townsend,

Cruise Lines on the docks,

Cargo ships with hook handling longshoremen 

Hooking bagged coffee wearing white socks.

From valleys, coastal and central, produce sweet

Despite the hours travel, lush

Stacked high on clean swept concrete 

Between the truck and ready buyers with green flush 

Mornings with Herb Caen and pages green,

And for some time, afternoons with Examiner

With fog and heavy dew, always parks green

Change every day, since she began, becoming more posher. 

She grew from ferries to bridges,

More and more dialects thru the ages,

The first spoke an original tongue, then Spanish,

In early 1900’s, some 17 different language pages.

Pogroms against the Chinese and Peruvians,

Earthquakes and fires unimaginable,

Crimes by those with collars and ruffians,

Labor fought for work manageable.

Shrouded tales neath the white billowy space

If not written, a story witnessed

Not remembered or not real if not told in grace

Contains truths only known if harnessed.

~ John Patterson