The VORTEX

 

 

 

You get close enough, you start to feel it—

Oh, you’re bound to feel it alright. Better keep your distance if you can’t

      handle it.

The Cruz ain’t no big place now, no big city, you know, everything’s

kind’a compact here, so you sure feel the vibes when you’re comin’ in,

& when you’re gettin’ in real close, it’s like a swirlin’ sensation in the air,

& as it swirls, you feel it draw you in even more, & it’ll draw you in alright—

It’ll pull you—swirl you—right in. 

                                                    It’s a spin alright, it’s a dizzy-making

sort’a motion—no doubt, you’ll start to go spinnin’ into it yourself—

There’s more rappin’, more jivin’, more deals bein’ made, more trippin’,

more losin’ it, more dreamin’, more schemin’, more dudes dude’n it,

more strummin’, more singin’, more chanting, more street performin’,

more oddball musicians, more tattoo rockers, more poets, more artists,

more creative cookin’, more Happy Hours, more partying, more surfers,

more Peter Pans, more pagans, more feminists, more hempsters, more geeks,

more support groups, more therapists, more quantum-crazed theorists,

more wannabes, more almost made-its, more about-to-be famous,

more once famous, more burn-outs, more dysfunctional haven’t-got-a-clue,

more bizarros, more nomads, more drifters, more time-warped hippies,

more culture junkies, more brilliant recluses, more decadent know-it-alls,

more uncommitted, more breakups, more goin’ nowhere but marooned

in this town, & more lost faces, more strange names, more temptations

& more frustrations than you could find anywhere else of comparable

      geographic size—

And as you get in closer to Pacific Ave, inside the Vortex,

the swirlin’ gets faster & gets more intense, it’s a powerful swirlin

      energy sink—

You get caught up in the swirl of everyone else bein’ pulled in,

      you’ll go spinnin’ & spinnin’, & spinnin’ yourself—

And if you can’t spin with it, it’ll scatter you right out.

      It’s the Vortex of the Cruz—

You never know what you’ll look like comin’ out the other end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 2003