Tag: 1923

three ways

painful pillows hold my head in vice
sloshing radiators overheat bowels
words saidunsaid needle hurting space
in fetal blueskinned sluggish confusion
out to frostyclear dawnlight
moist easterlies
three softslowstepping laps
eutaw baltimore greene lombard
eutaw baltimore greene lombard
eutaw baltimore greene lombard
everabsssorbing cobalt blue
fizzzbuzzz
trainsss leaving sssouth

cobalt blue at sunrise
(the emerson bromo seltzer tower on lombard and eutaw streets was the tallest skyscraper in the city from 1911 to 1923)

eyes in the sky

after the parade with torches and horses
fireflies everywhere
a tug of war on the steep hill
shouting pulling as father inched up
the tower light shining down behind him
“hands off!”
we heaped into the dirt just like that

mill tower at sunrise
(in 1923 after the owners of the mount vernon mills, at the end of chestnut street, failed to negotiate for several months on working hours and pay, workers ended the unsuccessful strike)