“Walnut Hulls” is about a mural in the old Tortilla Flats neighborhood of Ventura, California. The poem was first published in Cooweescoowee, a literary magazine put out by Rogers State University.
The mural Images were derived from old photographs, oral histories, and interviews capturing stories and memories of families who lived in the Tortilla Flats neighborhood, which was demolished in the 1940s to build the 101 freeway. Artists: MB Hanrahan & Moses Mora.
I am reading the poem under the bridge where the mural is–that’s why there’s traffic noise.
Video Poetry by the Sea 