me and my SO drinking wine with Jack @ Big Sur seven yrs into a new millennium

The Pacific Ocean laughs, Jack,
at both of us - you, fermenting
for the ages in Massachusetts
mud while I squeeze all
that vino, veritas and vivax
can yet give. The Pacific Ocean - just
these rocks and just that water -
the Biggest, Surriest essence of
the place - laughs at us, too,
intersecting across decades
at Vesuvio, an old place, where I
respectfully drink my beer.
I toast solemnly to history.
Did I hear you choke
in your grave, Jack?
Did we both hear the ocean laugh?
And what about these frickin redwoods? -
a thousand year's older than you,
or me, or Vesuvio,
or North Beach, or San Francisco itself
or any of it. Forty years on, Jack,
some of us moan to see
those trees stacked
like dead soldiers
on the backs of trucks
- but the Pacific Ocean just laughs.

20 July 2007