ships – Page 4 – sunrise in a small city

checkerboard crew

paddy on atlantic highway
tearing through gale ice and rain
bells ringing
stars bearing
course possessed
seas spitting whiskey breath
art of scars gold of brass
love my brother seaman
or kiss my fucking ass

harbor watch at sunrise — (in 1937 paddy whalen and others who would establish the integrated national maritime union marched on washington dc to secure the right to organize—the national maritime union and the predecessor seamen’s defense committee in the city worked out of 702 eastern avenue)

how far you go

leeward
to peas beans melons cantaloupes asparagus crabs oysters
orchards picnics
sick sailors immigrants dying contagious with mary
suburban mirage manguano cannery company town
baseball beer dancing burlesque
manufactury refinery petrolasphaltchemicalpool rails
gastank smokestack waste
liberty victory jumboizing containerizing
community clutching sandymuddyoiled rubbishroad
to fairfieldbrownfield
and beyond
to pleasant prospect adventure utopia
sweating river

brdge at sunrise — (in 1916 the hanover street bridge, now vietnam veterans memorial bridge, over the middle branch of the patapsco, replaced the long bridge between light street and fairfield)

with the devils of the sea

oxblood coral crushedstrawberry
rose runninginto ruby
paperthin bluesky mirrorbright snowplaintivewhite
sky between cloudsafterrain
fisheggs dewsprinkled
deadleafpurple
blackyellow blueblack gold
eelsblood paleblue
veins orangepeel shiveringice
oilywhite darkolive rainbowluster
applegreen pearldew
yellowcream palechocolate
cinnabar charcoal goldsprinkled
teadust ironrust
sunsteel
greenvioletblack copper
copper bluegreen
rosewhite turquoiseblue
yellowearth
terracotta
twilight skypure watercalm settingsun sparklingriver
whitemarblestained sapphiresea lateautumn
stormhiddensunbathed rayguilded
meltingsnow leadensky
dullyellowsky curdlingfog
whitecap blackcoat greensatin redblood troddensnow
lightdark infinite
random chosen

bma at sunrise — (in 1909 henry walters remodeled four houses on charles street in mount vernon square and opened the art collection started by his father to the public)

49ers

they would fly clouds ride comets
cross witches transit celestial
swim with sword fish challenge oceans around so called america
in long running ships with massive sail
they would climb through agricola alpes apenninus archimedes
carpatus caucasus cordillera
haemus harbinger
jura
pyrenaeus
recti riphaeus rook
secchi spitzbergen
taurus teneriffe.
boldly they would ride into al-qahira ares auqakuh
bahram
dao
harmakhis her-desher hrad huo-hsing
kasei
labou
ma’adim maja maders mangala marikh marte mawrth
nanedi nirgal
reull
shalbatana simud
tiu.
they would seek for eldorado

sugar plant at sunrise — (many clippers designed and built in baltimore sailed around cape horn carrying fortune seekers in the mid-19th century)

baltimore slave clipper

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)

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)

risingest town

warehouses around the water
tobacco and snuff
wheat and corn and flour and bread
sugar and rum
iron
paper and wool
oak and poplar and mahogany and spruce
tar and turpentine
orange juice and coconuts
rice and cotton
fish and furs and skins
pork and beef and butter and cheese
beeswax and candles
nails and boots and assembling ships.
baltimore bricks