Flag & BBQ

Memorial Day

by Steve Kowit

Because our sons adore their plastic missile launchers,

electronic space bazookas, neutron death-ray guns,

a decade down the pike it won't prove difficult

to trick them out in combat boots

& camouflage fatigues,

rouse them with a frenzy of parades, the heady

rhetoric of country, camaraderie & God,

the drum & bugle & the sudden

thunder of the cannon as they march

into Hell singing.

Which is the order of things.

Obedient to a fault, the people will do as they are told.

However dispirited by grief at the graves 

of their fallen, the mother returns at last to her loom,

the father to his lathe,

& the inconsolable widow home to raise sons

ardent for the next imperial bloodbath;

Ilium. Thermopylae. Verdun. 

Pork Chop Hill.

"Memorial Day" by Steve Kowit from The First Noble Truth. 

© University of Tampa Press, 2007.

Bubblegum Alley

"Don't touch anything!!!" This is the usual command given by mothers as their children enter the alley. "Gross!!!" Is another common reaction to the most photographed landmark in downtown San Luis Obispo. Spanning over 70ft. this sticky walled gum world is a jaw dropping tourist site worth stepping into. For over fifty years people have participated in Bubblegum Alley on Higuera Street, where you can chew and stick your artistic self into existence. Bazooka Pink, Bubblicious Orange, Adams Black Jack Licorice, Wrigley's Doublemint, Chiclets, it's all here! The color of the chewing gum more important than ever before in this alleyway. Many times business owners have led the charge to scrape and even fire hose off the wads of chew, but to no avail. Offering a taste of SLO's kooky artistic charm, Bubblegum Alley's local flavor attracts families year round and is conveniently located near eating, shopping and parking areas.

Leave Your Chew on Bubblegum Alley