Vistas & Byways - Spring 2022
  • CONTENTS
    • IN THIS ISSUE
    • Fiction
    • Nonfiction
    • Poetry
    • Bay Area Stew
    • Inside OLLI
    • Photo Essays
  • ABOUT US
  • CONTRIBUTORS
  • SUBMISSIONS
  • ARCHIVES
    • Fall 2021
    • Spring 2021
    • Fall 2020
    • Spring 2020
    • Fall 2019
    • Spring 2019
    • Fall 2018
    • Spring 2018
    • Fall 2017
    • Spring 2016
    • Fall 2015

​BAY AREA STEW  -   
       Tributes to Our Region 

Two children burst from laps     -    Weebly.com                                                                      

Sunday Afternoon in
Dolores Park

by MJ Moore

​​Unfurling orange-striped towels
and blue-checked picnic cloths,
people spill onto the grass.
 
A teen in tie-dyed shirt juggles red balls.
Black mutt leaps for neon pink frisbee,
feathered tail batting the air.
 
Two children burst from laps
as their mothers chat,
annoy the geese who waddle and honk
just out of their chubby reach.
 
Swings creak as short legs
frantically swish through air
in a dream of flying.
 
Local Buddhists sit on cushions,
share homemade granola bars,
meditate and chant
in a sanctuary of sun.
 
Man in leather jacket, newsboy cap
and green thong
prances up the sidewalk,
pauses,
prances on.
 
Scruffy guitar player strolls
among laughing clusters.
“A song for a dollar, anything you like.
I’ll sing about love or rockets,
your dog’s bad breath.”
 
Red-head in glitter and star crown
commissions a birthday ballad.
Her terrier sneaks off with a bag of chips
and feasts behind the sycamore tree.
 
All around—our beautiful, brilliant world.
San Francisco sings its Ode to Joy.
Vertical Divider
Picture
​MJ Moore lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her various incarnations have included technical writer and editor, grassroots environmental activist, first grade teacher, poet and flash fiction writer, wife, and mother. Strongly bicoastal, she thrives on salt air, wind and waves, but also loves mountains, deserts, forests and streams. Writing, for her, is a source of vision and joy. Her poem, “Cello Suite,” was previously published in Bach in the Afternoon, Poems from the Blue Light Press Summer 2018 Workshop.
Other pieces in this Issue:  
Poetry:
Frogs
Vertical Divider
Vertical Divider

    WE WELCOME COMMENTS

Submit
Fiction
Bay Area Stew
Nonfiction
Inside OLLI
POETRY
Photo Essays
Picture
Vistas & Byways Review is the semiannual journal of fiction, nonfiction and poetry by members of Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at San Francisco State University​.​
Picture
Vertical Divider
​Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at San Francisco State University (OLLI at SF State) provides communal and material support to theVistas & Byways  ​volunteer staff.

Contact the V&B
  • CONTENTS
    • IN THIS ISSUE
    • Fiction
    • Nonfiction
    • Poetry
    • Bay Area Stew
    • Inside OLLI
    • Photo Essays
  • ABOUT US
  • CONTRIBUTORS
  • SUBMISSIONS
  • ARCHIVES
    • Fall 2021
    • Spring 2021
    • Fall 2020
    • Spring 2020
    • Fall 2019
    • Spring 2019
    • Fall 2018
    • Spring 2018
    • Fall 2017
    • Spring 2016
    • Fall 2015