March 2016 – Page 2 – sunrise in a small city

carita romana

there could be robotic mastodons
roaming the city at night by gaslight
eating litter and defecating art.
but our wealth is too employed
for the genius all around.
cimon starves on holiday street

peale at sunrise — (rembrandt peale opened the baltimore museum on holliday street in 1813)

conquer we must

from the state of war
pride and destiny.
one million dollars for freed slaves
genocide for tenskwatawa and tecumseh

harbor from fort mchenry — (the treaty of ghent was signed in 1815)

swimming and flying
weaving ocean and wind into a jet stream,
wood and canvass
carved into an arrow hurtling with its bow,
constantly propelled.
swift upon another swifter away in battle.
carrying cargo with express and beauty.
finally refitted for slave transport.
just a rotting rusting weapon

rigging at sunrise — (as world trade required larger shipping vessels in the 19th century, baltimore clippers were repurposed and retrofitted to specialize in transporting slaves and contraband)

sir arthur brookes victory

exhilarate
watching an empire
melt away before you.
never soon enough

cannon and sunrise — (facing 15,000 maryland soldiers, militia, and citizens fortifying hampstead hill in patterson park, the british stopped their attack on baltimore in 1814 and withdrew)

liberty of the federal republican

silence is treason
and axes, hooks, and other instruments of destruction
have their own noise.
democracy sings
and beating, stabbing, and hot wax
discharge neuromuscular tension.
demagogues gluttons subalterns
trump distinction.
general stricker is not at home, cannot be seen, would do no more

on gay street at sunrise — (in 1812 the federal republican newspaper was destroyed for publishing anti-war commentary)

eyes of water

springs bubble unseen
headwaters in time
to hundreds of billions of gallons from all over.
pumping through

buried spring at sunrise — (the city spring and square constructed in 1810 near calvert and saratoga streets was a place for recreation and gathering)

body snatchers

sanctuary for cadavers collected
from fresh graves and murdered sailors,
for imported mummies,
for cryosectioning and magnetic resonance imaging
of atoms now scattered in the streets
more elegantly than confetti

medical college at sunrise — (the university of maryland medical college was established in 1807)

sulpicius severus

contemplating union
taught, led, and provided for,
or choosing good and evil.
determination may be singularly infinite

seminary at sunrise — (st. mary’s college of baltimore, the seminary of saint sulpice, was accredited in 1805)

concerning crimes and punishments

in a labor-scarce economy
for violations upon the lives, liberties or property, of others
in response to public outrage at the spectacle of convicts laboring on roads
solitary confinement, common silence, and hard labor.
operated profitably

penitentiary at sunrise — (in 1804 the baltimore penitentiary was erected on madison street for confinement and labor as an alternative to public and degrading punishment)

approaching the table

morning is warm and still in the low sun
for musters, examinations, and statements
pumps discharging.
there is the fort
the harbor in the distance
before steeples and shot towers.
now waiting

from lazaretto at sunrise — (in 1801 the lazaretto was built across the harbor from fort mchenry)

Month: March 2016