​POETRY   
                          

"embrace Karl the Fog and stop kowtowing to holiday traditions"

                                   Photo by Weebly                                   

July 4, 2025
An abecedarian
by Barbara Stevenson

As always, like the cousin you forget you have who
Blows into town for 3 days, the 4th comes round.
Coldest winter Mark Twain ever spent was in SF & though he
Didn’t utter those well-worn words, he nonetheless
Evinced understanding & would surely support my plea.
Fellow Frisco denizens, let us cancel the 4th forthwith.
Good God, people! Barbecues & 55° mists don’t mix.
Hot dogs eaten indoors taste like shit.
Ice cream cones long to melt. Let us
Just embrace Karl the Fog and stop
Kowtowing to holiday traditions formed
Long ago in climates far away. While we’re at it,
Maybe we can officially ditch the other
Nonsense, all the rah-rah greatest this & that--
Off brand, isn’t it? Let’s rouse the ghosts of
Patchen & Ginsberg & di Prima instead. Let’s raise
Queer flags--rainbow & pink-white-blue. Let’s
re-vigor Baghdad by the Bay, double down on
San Francisco values, cleave to our contrarian
Tradition. Surely, we still know how to dream,
Unfurl the sails of our imagination.
Vexing though these times may be, another
World is still possible. Let us rejoice that
X quit us (doom loop upside)! How about we
Yankee Doodle Dandy no more, buck the
Zeitgeist & celebrate our (shivering) Sanctuary City?

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Barbara Stevenson is a retired nonprofit consultant and active church lady, author of Church Shopping in the Bay Area (Sasquatch Books). She was awarded second prize in 2022 for Religious Essay and third place in 2019 for Memoir Vignette by the Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition. This poem grew out of an OLLI poetry class with Kathleen McClung. She lives in San Francisco. 
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Editor's note: Barbara Stevenson is a first-time contributor to Vistas & Byways  

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