freewrite for Wednesday

prompt is: vandals

(handbuilt hut on a different beach)

On a Saturday afternoon in April, some years ago, my aunt and uncle took me to a park in Albany, California, not far from their home in Richmond. This park jutted out into the San Francisco Bay in a few places. I can't remember the park's name. A lot of homemade statues, things people have built by hand, are in that place. Tall metal figures, concrete huts for parties. As you'd expect, vandals came in and tagged them all, trashed the park. Where does street art end and vandalism begin? Is it the intent: create vs. destroy?

"They've tagged this little house all over," my alpha hippie uncle groaned. "I dropped acid here once, and it was so clean, by the bay." Now, in this little hut where we stood, there were condomns, empty fifths of vodka, grafitti over every surface. This was nine years ago so I don't know if this park has been cleaned up or trashed even more. As we walked down one path a man came up to us and said, "Please don't come this way," and I could see his tent sticking out from behind some bushes. A small, scruffy brown dog loped behind him. Homeless in California.

Thanks for reading, and visit @mariannewest to read more/participate in her wonderful prompts.