"Raising tuition is a tax on poor and working people. Firing teachers and cutting education budgets is an attack on working people. California was supposed to have an education system equivalent to its status as 8th largest economy in the world, providing access to education for its citizens equal to elite private colleges of the East Coast. There was a whole progressive vision for the state that is forgotten, erased by generations of individualism, consumerism and greed at the highest levels," I was saying it to everyone, but I was saying it to myself, because it was like I was speaking some foriegn language of Nayarit.

"Get up, get up you dog!" I said to the animal. "Somebody must listen to my stories about how the world was pissed away in movies, personal electronics, distractions of spiritual disease of all times, encrudescences protruding from the flesh of human lives." He perked up his big ears.

I myself had personal issues to deal with. Awkward projections of lust toward inanimate objects caused me to throw myself on gopher holes, tree stumps or piles of melons. TV said to take drugs and call your doctor for erections lasting longer than four hours. On days like that it took me hours to get out of the house.

The animal put on his human face and peered at me with concern. "Don't be an asshole," he was saying, "Don't act like a jerk. Stop spitting lame-ass ideas. Try to be useful to somebody else. What are your dreams really about?" I understood everything he was telling me when he wore that mask.

When I tried to explain to him, he gave me his regular look. Sometimes I looked at the animal, he looked like an ordinary dog. He looked like he wanted food. He probably wanted to go to the sidewalk and pee on everything. It seemed so natural, I never bothered to ask, "Why is your tail hollow? If I blow on it, do you make a whistling sound?"

Sometimes the animal had an urge to go play in the street with his friends. I felt I had to watch out for him in the street. The world is so risky for animal desires.

I was exercising, trying to get in shape. I had a lot of time to make up for, trying to get through dead centuries---it seemed to me---and break through the living present. I was working on my speed, my reflexes, feeling slower with years. Time to stop messing around and get to work!

The animals were always hungry. They like the tender elote. I fed them, and made something for myself. You got to eat to produce. You got to take care of yourself and the animal desires crawling on top of you.

Luckily (as Bukowski said), there's usually someone or something around to tell me what to do. We are part of various collectives. We are paying our dues. For instance, this woman showed up at the door, dressed in a cute black sweater and asked, "What would you do if you sacrificed your only given son for them and they didn't know you or even like you?"

The animals were dancing in the street. The vehicles streamed around their happy whirling desires. Sunshine enfused all things with solar glare. My days are saturated with sweetness like tamarindo juice.

I told Ben, Teto and Roberto that we would meet, plan, scheme, innovate, collaborate, make stuff happen. Somehow, ideas would break out. Somehow, visions would be secreted into plain air. Leonor mentioned she was going to run errands.

I put on the right kind of T-shirt, not the dirty one from yesterday. I hadn't survived through the centuries and thousands of miles to get stuck on the sidelines, frozen in time, motionless for eternity, doing nothing for my people. Bring it on.

I had a cup of coffee. Day had streamed over the mountains hours earlier. It was blasting like terrific furious music. Luckily, I had people to talk to like Marialice and Reyes who showed what could be done with the inner spark of our lives.

I was looking inside myself, what did I have to give. Whatever it might be, give it all. Don't worry about the dust from the stars and centuries and the dirty street. Don't forget your parts. Ouch---that's my foot! Get yourself together now!

A co-worker thanked me for being helpful, but I hadn't done a damned thing, I felt. I sure hadn't saved her job. She'd just started, made significant advances, and they laid her off. She was going to have to start over. Imagine? What was I doing about it? What had I really gotten done?

I was hitting the streets. I made my calls. I put out the word. We put it in motion. Who knows, but we would see!

My animal is furious about this situation. He is shaking, he is vibrating like the train tracks when the big train is coming. This bullshit situation of ripping off the people shall not stand.