What did I see from the train? What did I hear?

Things I saw from and heard on the 12-hour train ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles

Two trees in a field
A dog in a green canal staring down five seagulls
Jerry's Welding
Parking lots
Apartment complexes

I saw Janis Joplin in concert

Long stretches of graffiti like people exclaiming I was here!

I went to Balboa High School 

A boy in a backyard waving at the train

My sweetheart was there 

A decaying brick building without a roof
GILROY GENERATOR AND STARTER EX, who among us doesn't have a starter ex

Everyone asks me if he's my husband and I'm like no! He's my brother! Everyone always thinks he's my husband!

Wooden pallets
Power plants
Large beige cylinders of something 
ALIEN spray painted in teal on a wall

It's gonna be a 12 hour concert 

Palm trees leaning 
People under highway overpasses
People in tents
People in backyards
THINK SAFELY WORK SAFELY 

Sigh
Phone ring 
Train squeaking 
Guilty. 

A huge pile of small gray rocks
Birds sitting in a dam

I didn't eat up there, I just got some ice water. 
Yeah that's - on my own.
I know who you're talking about, the name's right here. 

Crops I'm unable to identify, brown
Crops I'm unable to identify, green

On the horizontal axis, 24 suspicious tickets. 

Grape trees
Mountains far away 

She did! No she didn't. She did! 

Big cherries painted on a white shack 

I like all types of music. I like salsa, I like jazz, I like Sinatra. 

Power lines
Rusted pipes
Tilled fields
Synchronized sprinklers
Wheat
Vats
Wet soil and dry soil 
Cracked dry dirt in the shape of a dam

Constant presence.

A metal cut out of a cat, painted pale yellow, affixed to the top of a metal fence 

Cough 

Trash 
Train tracks 
Tall yellow flowers
Dark green brush
Cloudless sky

So what do you do, for the world? 

A hawk (I think)

Yawn
Sneeze
Kamala's motorcycle got into an accident, a crash. Kamala's motorcade. Kamala Harris. 
Who knows why, they didn't say.

Scraggly trees
Paths
Red berries

Bells ringing 
You could ask the conductor 

Trees standing tall in the distance like a block of popular girls 

If I ever do this again, I'm getting a sleeper car. It's a lot. But I've had a lot of – just really beautiful, and heartbreaking, really. 

Red leaves 
Eucalyptus trees 
Fences made out of logs
Black plastic crates
A red shack with white door
Olive trees? 

Hola mamacita
Love you mom. Talk to you later. 

A lighthouse, no ocean though 
Three metal mailboxes

Branches whipping against the window
Children shrieking 
Chips crunching in mouths
No, mom said we could sit here

Wooden posts
Slanted roofs
ATTENTION

Burp 

Thick overgrown greenery, so thick it cools the temperature of my face, angled towards the window

The plaintive hoooooo of the train calling

Eucalyptus forest
Pink flowers, out of nowhere!
Old cargo train cars, graffitied and full of gray sand

Wow look at that rock!!! How crazy is that! Wow!
What do you think those plants are? 

A person picking something in a field waving at the train 

The best views are gonna be on this side

Greenhouses encased in plastic 
Branches 
A cardboard box 

Guess we're at a station 

American flags
A San Francisco 49ers flag

I tried building a piano 

Portopotties (teal)
Tiny birds flying in unison over a marsh

My friend's wife just died of lung cancer. She never even smoked. 

A heron sitting in water

Plastic crinkling

Neon green liquid standing still in a thin line
Neon green liquid standing still in an oval 

My mom's mother, the Nazis came looking for her.

A house about three feet by two feet by two feet, with a brown shingled roof and a cut out door, on the side of a parking lot

[A man tried to ask me something in gestures. First I thought he wanted to walk past me, then I thought he was asking the time, then I thought he was asking where the dining car was, so I pointed behind me and said oh! The dining car is that way. And away he went. Now he's sitting alone at a table in the observation car with two containers of instant ramen, one open with a spoon in it, one closed, a Sprite (open), and a plastic cup of ice, all encased in a cardboard tray that says Coca Cola in script next to an Amtrak train rounding the corner of the tray.] 

A tree with red flowers 
A painted wooden cut out of a farmer with a red bandana over her mouth and nose 
Windmills, spinning
Plastic tubes
Metal tubes

Do you mind if we join you? She's never seen the coast on a train.

Shreds of blue tarp on a metal fence, blowing in the wind
Bushes
Gravel
Tractors
Cars waiting to cross the train tracks 
Mobile homes 
Huge succulents 
Cardboard boxes stacked on a truck 
Receding columns of unidentified vegetables 

My dad's my drummer

A road leading to a circle of pavement, streaked from cars doing donuts 

My sister's one of those people, you know, she has a concealed carrier permit
I hate to say it but like, basic innate human rights, to like hunt the land you own. 
Her husband hunts, he's an elk hunter. Every single hoof and antler is turned into jewelry or some other thing. He's been doing it his whole life. So you know… I've had some jerky. His elk and venison jerky is off the chain.

Dirt roads

How does that make any fucking sense?

Portopotties (green)

We must be getting close to San Luis Obispo, or what they call sloooooow

A vestibule that attaches to the hitch of a truck and carries horses, decaying and sunken
Machines extracting things from the earth 
A river, clear and brown

Dude I cannot wait to experience queer feminist culture 

Trampolines
Above-ground circular pools
Playgrounds in backyards
CHIPS WANTED (handwritten)

How did I get so fucking lucky? 

A yellow fire hydrant
A red convertible
Docks in marshes
Ducks on docks in marshes
Grass

I work in a fucking grocery store, right? So people are always like, do you have any dates? And I'm like, well I used to go to the mall 

Roof paneling that has fallen partially through a roof, unmoving
YELL 3
A metal tunnel big enough to drive a car through 

That's not true. You can carry that false truth with you if you want, but I have seen you carry more tasks than anyone should be capable of. You fucking challenge me. It's super appreciated.

Sand

You're chismosa!

Trees with pine needles
Quails scampering
A pile of firewood outside a porch 
Shade

Again there are no easy answers on this. 

Kayaks outside a little lake
Horses grazing 
A dog yawning 

You can think on this, you can write me a letter later (laughs).

A young woman with a backpack waving at the train 

How you doing? You good? 

Hollowed out tree stumps 
Dried branches reaching 
Silos
Corrugated metal partially obscured by wheat
A public playground 
Garbage cans
Orange cones, new and weather worn 
A girl riding a horse 
A woman jogging on a trail 
Rocks
Bales of hay
Power generators 
Complete and total darkness
Ravines

I've been studying film for 20 years now. My mom was a very strange person. IS a very strange person. 

Hikers, one carrying a baby on his back

Hi boobear

Black cows grazing, one staring at the train 
A penitentiary with a mural of trees and four palm trees growing between buildings 

Chips. A little nibble. It's nibbling time.

Two turkeys scurrying
A pig napping in mud
Pigs eating from a trough
Cows resting
Tires

…all these years 

Basketball courts
Soccer teams clumping
An abandoned baseball stadium
A university
Flowers growing beside highways
Bike lanes
A concrete pool with no water
Slanted brick roofs

I am. I. 

Dumpsters
Lampposts

Mom mom mom you have to remember, the longest I've done is 72

A concrete bench 
Dark green metal benches
Trees with orange flowers
Two women hugging and then taking a selfie
The ocean 

I will make sure as soon as that door closes you have a message.

A person staring at the ocean

I will message you as soon as I'm at the hotel. Message you as soon as I'm at the hotel. Message you as soon as I'm at the hotel. 

A person in a tan hat looking into their camera on a tripod

I've had a lot of weird things in my life. I didn't know I was anxious until a few years ago. 
I know I have anxiety because of different symptoms I have in my body. 
So that's why I started taking drugs. 
It didn't lower my blood pressure, but I liked myself. I liked who I was better. 

A blanket of countless small green succulents shaped like blades of grass but thicker and bigger, covering the hills by the ocean

Why don't you find another way to have marijuana? There are lots of ways to have marijuana.

A SPACEX building 

I'm not surprised. Because you're so depressed. It seems. 
You're not?
I'm not.

Sea foam building 
Waves rolling 
Waves breaking 
Clouds 
Fog
A ship 

If you're gonna go into a grave, do it the way you like it.
I don't know, I think quality of life matters.
Do you think you're an addict? 

Oil rigs spaced evenly apart 
Large rocks in the ocean
Tall plants that can only be described as shaggy

I can't ever imagine doing that again.
Marriage?
Yeah. 

Wooden benches facing the ocean 

Everybody knows me by my laugh. They can find me by my laugh.

A sailboat
Pink sky
Rivulets
Storage units 
Illuminated outdoor staircases
A football field 

[I offered the woman behind me who'd been talking about anxiety the rest of my VYBES drink, for anxious minds. She said no. The guy she had been talking to, who had been talking about depression, said, can I have it? It might help.]