LABOR DAY WEEKEND AT THE OLD BRICK KILN

Labor Day weekend at the old brick kiln, at Remillard’s, or El Quijote.

The Gitano sings No puedo ir in the old brick kiln.
His face wrapped in tragedy, is almost comic,

but his voice travels, wrapping itself snakelike 

through sensuous bends and crenellations 

of the old brick kiln chambers where, as kids 

we used to sneak in to play in the thick dust.
The flamenco dancer’s hands speak to the night

wrapped in triste, and  la vida es el muerte.
He is plucking syllables from the air

and his pelvis pounds out the consonants. 

Vowels escaping on the outbreath, 

and the stars convulse into tears 

caught in the night’s dark throat. 

Desire wears the face of a dancer. 

The old brick kiln where we once explored, 

was rubble and spiders, for nearly a century,

it rose and fell under Jupiters neglectful influence, 

and fell again under Mercury retrograde.
After the flamenco set, Herman, Verona and I dance 

and sweat under the stars, on the roof 

of what was once an honest building,

now filled with earth-shattering disco 

to end this summer. Killing Me Softly

brought me back to Amsterdam, last summer,

and all the men killing me softly with their songs.

The disco ball drops, scattering stars onto the bay.

29 Aug, Larkspur Landing/San Quentin

Added 4/20. somewhat revised. The temptation to fix this one is strong. The reason why I never typed it is obvious, it doesn’t go anywhere but I’m fleshing out the year, raiding old notebooks.

The Green Brae Brick Yard and Kiln operated for over 100 years and rebuilt Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. It supplied bricks for Ghirardelli Square, the Palace Hotel, firehouses, and the foundations for all those mansions. Free labor was supplied by the prisoners of San Quintin, clay was scraped from the mudflats and turned a tidy profit. It turned dirt into money. The Hoffman kiln was the largest brick factory on the on the west coast until it was shut down in 1915. It was  founded in 1800 by Pierre-Nicholaus Remillard, The Hoffman brick kiln on Francis St., Boulevard is a California landmark. In 1862 there was a prison break where the prisoners who are making bricks broke into San Quintin and freed 400 prisoners.

It was “saved” and turned into a restaurant called Remillard’s, after the founder, then El Quijote, and another foolery until it closed for good in 2000 for lack of parking.