Windy drive from the San Jose airport

To Santa Cruz was a perking

Business travel.

Old hippie beach town

Reflected a by-gone optimism.

When I was growing up

In the sixties

My fears of being drafted gave me

Repressed anxiety.

Too young to participate in love-ins.

I smoked marijuana for less than six months.

And being gay held me back

From any sexual experiences.

I romanticized this ride.

Rental car hugged the turns.

Large trees shadowed the two-lane highway.

Ascent to the town fulfilled my expectations

Of new age wonders.

I reveled in the run-down Cruz city

That hunted for being reborn.