under our tarmac brick and mostly clay
fungi wires seeping pipes measured light
soil thru shoes thru brain in sky
capital entropy underneath
enzymes unshared
instead of leaves stretching sun gathering water together.
so some days
is it the weather my fingers feel like dying
material ceasing to cycle
nutrients not flowing
slashing story of coconut hacks palm
hectares in forced labor
hydrocarbon driversupplying chains
ships trains hauling boiling
filtering through human sweat skin
incense sacred st our hope
daphnia magna culex pipiens tubifex rivulorum lymnaea vulgaris rana cyanophlyctis cirrhina mrigala back river
sky of how many billion billion moons
all free clear sweet blue cell in almost empty everyplace
some never leave mothers ocean
others breathe
three hundred ten million
more to share than
condolences
did you say
“and there was never a respite from the battle”
bringing my transchild
to meet your son
pictures and stories are windows in walls i don’t see past
a black mirror
warm blood on skin yellow white black
someone washing away toward a vast ocean
i navigate by echo
welcome
festively slim and trim
baking inspiration
pure cane dark light white
sticky brown removed
crystals like time
sprinkled through canneries and pharmacies and photogalleries
moving hands and feet on whirling explosion electric machines
excess manufacturing amnesia
benjamin franklin butler camps in the warrens under federal hill
each day slowly in full uniform walks to the artillery
fires a shot into the heart of our city
our soldiers die east west southeast southwest
we have not surrendered
have not been destroyed
until we lift overhead our swords
then humbly lay them down
he pummels us like slowly dripping water
despots filled the streets
cobbled with ignorance born from greed
bastard sons and daughters of mother hell
will snuggle in parlors with empty words and moldy swords
thirty thousand new suns could not wrest the nightmare of your torture
your hurled bricks pieces of iron and coal epithets a lunatic babble
as you writhe in self-forged chains beneath your hell bitch mother
puss oozing from your blistering flecked faces mountains streams
murderous premeditated with no soul to yield or defend
distant thunder soundless in the void
that could have been hearts beating with the earth
woolfolk slatter donovan purvis campbell harker denning
wilson hines fairbanks kephart anderson accinelly,
chained cargo to walk or be hauled down pratt in the middle of the night
to ships agent architect hyperion general pinckney intelligence kirkwood tippecanoe and victorine
and new orleans
uncounted sons or daughters or sisters or brothers or fathers or mothers or lovers.
penned
shackled
sweltered
frozen
drenched
whipped
auctioned.
cash for seamstresses
small fancy girls
fellows
hands
highest prices
always buying.
here is the short list to find our lost soul
adjustment amends atonement
compensation
damages
expiation
indemnification indemnity
punishment
quittance
recompense recoupment redress refund reimbursement remuneration repayment reprisal requital restitution retaliation
satisfaction settlement
an osprey appeared in the mist
a falling meteorite into the harbor
almost unseen.
another soared twisting turning
outmaneuvering five crows giving chase.
a third skimmed to me
and became a beetle as it landed on my hand
large pincers for piercing fruit
eyes blood red and large for walking in dark shadows
serrated fangs for injecting venom
long antennae curled into smoke
reaching in my nose and oozing out my ears.
i put it in my mouth chewed and swallowed
so my children leave faint traces of its indigo exoskeleton
with each footstep
the board believe
the colonists are happy and contented and comfortable
removed from contact with the laboring population from europe
amalgamating the subjects of king freeman
indebted for the great blessing of christianity
the injurious and burdensome replaced by the white.
and still we let boards attempt to believe.
restore the wages
