24 April 2006

MUNI haiku

There's a website devoted to haiku about San Francisco MUNI buses and streetcars. Of course.

There are classic tropes of public transit ...

Waited forever
And then you showed up for me
Seven in a row

... some San Francisco lore ...

At Castro Station
expensively dressed men all
exit the Muni

... some teasing of tourists ...

the smug pleasure of
boarding a cable car and
flashing a Fastpass

... and more. My own offering is about the #15 bus:

Chickens cluck in bags
En route to the sizzling wok
And look! A live pig!

For, oh, how I love the #15 as it winds through Chinatown!

It reminds you that Chinatown is more than an artifact of the San Francisco Department of Tourist Propaganda, but a real, functioning Chinese city since before the time of Emperor Norton I. There have been times when I've been the only person on a crowded bus who wasn't having a conversation in rapidfire Chinese. I can't count the number of times I have seen Chinese women who look to be a spry 650 years old boarding the #15 with weird vegetables and live chickens in big brown paper bags. I've daydreamed that if you just know the trick to doing it, you can step out the back door at the right stop on the #15 and find yourself walking along the banks of the Yangtze. And yes, I really have seen a live pig on the #15 ... only the once ... but I swear, the driver didn't even shrug when he saw it.

1 comment:

TheWayOfTheGun said...

...since before the time of Emperor Norton I.

Good God, man! That line is a master stroke. I stand in awe.