Painting by Herb Morse 196?

San Francisco Tenderloin

The tree is a beach umbrella

fringed with red carnations or zinnias

and casts no shadow on the hot adobe

where a woman sits

on the   sidewalk

on the edge

of a hillside street that slopes

suddenly

into an unseen   canyon

Her green shawl is an army blanket

she wears over a scarf

on her forehead is a cross

she is trying to see

as it hovers star-like almost

between her eyes

her hands form a   head in her lap

a mulatto mask out of which rises

the stem of a red carnation, rose, or Zinnia

or perhaps her chest bleeds

a grocery bag droops liver

ears, mustard hair

and a broccoli cap

jaunty dog of a bag

watchdog

for the paper cranes

holding a bottle of red wine

at its back and her knees

she is praying

she is alone

her legs are deformed by shadows

there are hooves in the tennis shoes

white bunny rat slippers

are sleeping

where she waits.