Electric overcast sky. I’m tripping with Doug and Derald, last Sunday, June. They’re impossibly beautiful, these two brown-eyed men, lit up by a new romance. We’ve abandoned the crowds at Civic Center for a patch of grass between the Opera House and the War Memorial. Sprawled on our backs we’re plugged into the Golden Gate, threehuge speakers on the roof of each building transmitting live from the bridge. I close my eyes and spin into foghorns, seagulls, waves crashing Fort Point. Kim Novak loses her balance but keeps her coiffure. Foghorn, seagull, foghorn, foghorn, foghorn. The heat emanating from Doug and Derald burns my arm. I want to take up residence in their fever dream, in their swelter deflecting summer drizzle. Jimmy Stewart extends his hand to Kim, his steady voice her lifeline, the civic center crowd roars. I whisper: Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy.

 

Brian Thorstenson is a San Francisco based writer, teacher and occasional performer. Brian was a founding member of The Z Collective and one of the first resident artists of the Z Space. His poetry has appeared in 14 Hills, New American Writing, Foglifter, and the Lambda Literary Review. He is an alumni of the Resident Playwright Program of the Playwrights Foundation and one of the founding members of 6NewPlays. Recent projects have included Dearly Gathered with choreographers Rowena Richie, Christy Funsch and Chris Black, Fugue with Detour Dance and Wakefield with 6NewPlays. He is a lecturer in Playwriting and Devised Theater at Santa Clara University and has an MFA from San Francisco State University. More at Brianthorstenson.com

Image banner: Film still from Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock