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a "Downtown Poem" |
It looks very out of place Beat up, a tan so faded (and dated) that it matches what might be mud caked on its pinstripes. It could be that the paint has faded from the last twenty cross-country marathons, but close up one can see the pinstriping wasn’t thrown on like spattered chocolate batter. Yes it’s mud. I’ve never heard of a Starstream RV and this one certainly made its maiden voyage at least a decade (or two) before yours truly was born. Which is why this four-wheeled fantasy creature from another realm is so very odd sitting at a curbside parking meter in the heart of midtown Sacramento. Yes out of place out of time (literally as the electronic parking meter flashes red) out of date and even out of character. Cobwebs should not be gathering around the tires. The wind should be fluttering the worn-out mud flaps hanging like ragged hippie hair. The grille should be rattling on the open road while she maintains a shuddering but somehow even-keeled 75 like a veteran barfly who inexplicably manages to stagger out the door in a surprisingly straight line, ten minutes and ten shots before closing time. And above all the tires should be kicking up dust as from the hooves of horses in the closing sunset of every Western. But instead it sits stoically (or perhaps dumbfounded) curbside to Sutter’s Fort, where signs casually suggest “This building is historically significant!” Significance seems relative here. |