Cannery Row

I think I shall go
to Cannery Row
there by the bay
in Monterey
there to kneel
before California seals
dropping my words of wisdom.

But these words of wisdom limp and fail
like a garden hose in an empty pail
But I learn from them a Nietzschean truth:

"One who cannot be smitten by nature
Should be smitten by men,
For such things are not human
But devils in masquerade."

The seals went erect and howled their glee
As hail cascaded from clouds born of Sea.

The sand turned to snow
on Cannery Row
I ran to my car
on the asphalt tar
to watch the seals disappear
into the surf, white and near.

"These are strange days!"
I screamed to myself
to drown out the hail
rebounding off my car.

I came to teach
Instead to learn
In the raucous cacophony of cascading ice
I am made silent.