Fillmore Street, San Francisco

The fog cleared sufficiently by late evening, enough for us to stroll down Fillmore and take in the sights.

The bookstore there had the big bio on Patricia Highsmith in the discount bin out front and the Alan Furst novel, "The Polish Officer," that several people close to us suggested we read, on the fiction shelf inside. We purchased both.

Across the street, the marquee sign for D&M Liquors, on which I'd found many memorable short found poems through the years, was missing!

What happened, I had to know?

The city made us take it down, the guy behind the counter said. A new ordinance or something.

He said the sign had been there for 25 years, at least. I said I'd miss it, as I enjoyed the weekly messages about a wine's "crisp minerality" or a boubon's "sharp finesse," and had borrowed several of them to incorporate into my own writing assignments.

We crossed the street to see what was playing at the old movie theatre. A new Woody Allen movie! But not having liked the last new Woody Allen movie, we demurred and continued walking up Fillmore Street instead.

Most everybody wears clothes these days but not everybody can wear the clothes as seen in the windows of the clothing stores along Fillmore. Only very few people I know can, those young enough and who have the wherewithal, very few people indeed. And none of these people have children, come to think of it, as I do come to think of it thinking about the clothes I'm seeing in the shop windows and the people who must be wearing them, somewhere.

Perhaps it's the job of parents to leave their children lots of problems to work out, so that their children have something to do, to occupy their time in a worthwhile manner by giving them the means to buy clothes only they can wear whether or not they have the means to buy them.

But not make them feel that they are living at a time when everything has to be touched by the hand of genius.

There is no hand of genius.

But blessed be the pure of heart for they can see that everything is full of life on Fillmore Street.