She's texting me from
old L.A.
Heading north on the El Camino Real
driving fast on 101
I'm heading west
from Paradise, Nevada
No work here
It's all shut down
Driving through
Susanville
Hat Creek
Shingletown
Redding
Across the burning Trinity Alps
the river sure is beautiful
My heart is soaring,
just missed that landslide
late last night
Meeting my life in Humboldt County
She, from the South
Me, from the East
We cross that
Redwood Curtain
Right into the heart of the Emerald Triangle
Meeting my true love in Humboldt County
They say the streets
are lined with
green gold
The family "grows,"
up in the hills
where everyone is welcome
to trim scene solutions,
the emerald gardens
with trees six feet high
Glistening buds as big as your fist,
Everyone is smiling
Everyone is high
sure I may reek
of that Marijuana resin
but two hundred dollars a day
flirting all the way
all I can eat
all I can ****
sounds a lot like heaven to me.
I'll be getting that 215
growing plants
as far as the eye can see
Another millennium
with back problems, insomnia and anxiety.
My fortune is just waiting for me.
Meeting my sweet love in Humboldt County
Like an old Woody Guthrie tune
you ain't gonna find nothing
without that dough re me
There ain't no doubt
that ****, so pure
will get you so high
you'll be wishing your still alive
No matter how high you get
There will still be reality.
Gotta get out of this indoor grow
Black mold growing up the walls
The floors are buckling
The ceiling too
The electrical is sparking
Another landlord on the hook
What's a boy to do?
The methamphetamine
The ****** machine
Trying not to blow my face off
with a butane tank
making that concentrated cannabis
Cold and wet
sleeping bag soaked on the beach,
A tent in the Devil's Playground
the homeless encampment
behind the Bayshore Mall
that's what I met
and don't leave your ****,
It'll be gone in a quick minute.
The gardens are beautiful
good chance I'll never see 'em
The man with the ball cap
The big *** truck
holding a shot gun
"Better move on, son,
No trespassing here. "
I'm just
another dread locked kid
on the Arcata Plaza
with a dog I can't take care of
Down in Eureka
on concrete Broadway
Fourth Street
Fifth Street
Old Town
Where the fights break out
The cops they have no patience
Another Drunk in Public
drunk tank
Back on those same streets
at one a.m.
Get too crazy
5150 for an overnight stay,
second floor in County Mental Health,
walls closing in,
Psychiatrist says
"We ain't got nothing for ya,
good luck out there. "
Meeting my sweet love in Humboldt County
Once here
there is no way out
Panhandlers
Hitchhikers
on every corner
No one's giving out
No one's picking up
I'm gonna need my family
to send that Moneygram
Get me on a Greyhound Bus
haven't heard a word from them yet.
Even the police say
No one's gonna accept me,
So they ain't gonna pay.
I've been
Trying to leave a message
for my sweet love,
haven't seen her for a month,
She headed up to Trinidad
with a would be spiritual monk
The Redwoods spiral to the skies
The ranchers own the green
pastured hills
The beaches are vast and empty
The ocean is wilderness wild
waiting for the tsunami
turn your back on the ocean
you may fall in
many have fallen
few survive
on the most exquisite
blue sky day
you've ever seen.
Meeting my true love in Humboldt County.
Inspired by Bruce Springsteen's Atlantic City.
For r who told me to write this a couple of years ago. I should add that Humboldt County is considered the Marijuana capital of the U.S., lures many young kids thinking their going to find riches and nirvana.