El Corazon Del Valle San Joaquin

El Corazon Del Valle San Joaquin

For Teresa Anderson (died Jan. 9, 2006).


Fox

The San Joaquin Kit Fox
is like a magician
Kit foxes can make themselves disappear
Once I saw a kit fox with a kitten
in its mouth trotting away
from a house on the edge of Bakersfield
one minute it was there
next it just disappeared
invisible amongst the sage and dessicated grass

Owl

The burrowing owl
pretends to be wise
he stands outside his borrow
close to the Kern River Bike Path
by the shores of Lake Truxtun
fishermen, joggers, walkers, and cyclists
all pass by
None of them bother or frighten him
At night he soars above the parking lots
at the edge of the Market Place shopping center
he listens for the squeal of the mouse
and then he swoops
no more squealing just the flapping
of his wings.
during the day he ignores
the people on the bike path
It is not night
they are not mice
Did I not say the burrowing owl
pretends to be wise?

Grizzly Bear

The California Grizzly Bear is history.
The last one in Kern County
was killed in 1898.
But the grizzly bears once were everywhere
Places names bear this out
Bear Mountain, Big Bear, Los Osos
They ruled California before man first came
They ruled California when man came
because Indians' flint arrows and small bows
could not kill all of them.
But when the Spaniards and the Americans came
with their big bore muskets
The California Grizzly was doomed.
They survive in Canada and Alaska
There have been rumors
that grizzlies have been sighted
in the Sierras of northern California.
But who, who I ask you,
believes rumors?

Ernesto

Ernesto, (Call me Ernie) is a retired
PG & E engineer.
His grandparents came from Mexico
in 1910 refugees from the civil war
His father and mother picked grapes
in Delano, except during the strike.
He spends his morning in Starbucks
talking to his friends, he has many.
Today he sits alone talking on his cell phone
to his youngest daughter,
a student at CSU San Francisco.
I eavesdrop on his side of the conversation.
"What do you mean you want to quit college?"
"Where you gonna live?"
"No you ain't living with me.
"I got no room in my house for a college dropout!"
End of conversation.

All

Fox, owl, bear, and man
we live in this land, sometimes we share it.
Mostly we share the bad,
the heat, lack of rain, smoggy air, pesticides,
and poverty.
Making do. Trying to do better
than eat, sleep, mate, and survive
Doing better ain't easy,
but some how it gets done.

Capitano Tedeschi

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El Corazon Del Valle copyright Sept. 19, 2009 by Jamie Jacks