Wilderness Moments in Orange County

For Beryl

Between the taco stand and the used-car lot
on Santa Clara, there's that single patch
of date-palms where green parrots come
squawking to their nests high up
in those dried-out fronds. Such
wilderness moments, bordering the freeway,
relive themselves again and again
like the lone coyote
who kept strolling past Safeways
or that stranded whale among flustered sails
down at Marina-del-Rey. (Throw away
your Moby-Dick!) But it's mainly
the memory of those birds returning
with the sun going down like a nightly Titanic
...