Tag: anthropocene

anthrogaiapocene

i meet you in ashes
as we walk away from what had been
i learn about you
we make and destroy cities of hills by water
woven with hate
you are my second skin
we consume each other
please
scratch bleed wash chew and spit me
into something i cant see

redwood street at sunrise
(the great baltimore fire of 1904 started in the basement of a warehouse at hopkins place and german, now redwood, street)

spontaneous combustion

cinders burning straw wind
clay to park liberty saratoga lexington
a factory on fire spawned men from windows
framehouses and brickhouses exploded in lightning and thunder
shouts and cries chorused into wailing prophesy
dragons pulled wagons through smoke and cinder
firefighters labored on the edge of sacrifice
crows and vultures circled updrafts high above
soaked blankets and men eclipsed the basilica.
the kindling fire in the shavings box next to the engine room
sparked from some strange density
beneath the street

park and lexington at sunrise
(an 1873 fire that burned over four blocks and more than a hundred buildings around clay and park streets was followed by an ever increasing number of smaller fires leading up the 1904 fire)

arch action

five rings of fifteeen million bricks for lateral thrust
compressing space for veins of steel
passing protein and enzyme and impulse
through limbs and organs
of the growing body of human place
wanting more power.
slowly we ride submerged in darkness and strung light
systemic
alone apart atomic

south portal at sunrise
(the first train passed from the south portal of the baltimore and potomac tunnel near gilmore street to the north portal under north avenue in 1873)

spindle principle

no one notes the dark steel serpent
low almost submerged steaming out of middle branch
sleek and cutting
sailing time
plodding along dry sea-beds
yachting through silent oceans
no omen marks the shoals and canyons
only the wake resonates

middle branch at sunrise
(ross winans began building innovative but unsuccessful steamships in 1858 near what is now swann park)

tolling still

the loneliness of a wild haven
surrounded by dark rocks and towering trees
an eden
in the labyrinth of water images of the future glisten unhidden
forever changing dells of poplar
in an ancient valley of unrest
a settling town in a sea of time-eaten towers
buried hopes among the green slopes
with glorious golden banners and echoing throngs
silence interludes obscure and lonely
amid mountains silting into oceans
an eldorado by that infinity
destined for the sounding sea

gavesite at sunrise
(edgar allan poe died in baltimore and was buried in a presbyterian graveyard at fayette and greene streets in 1849)

with sense of public purpose

steel rhizomes patapsco to ontario
stems rise and spread flowering brick and pavement
woodberry blue mount bentley springs glen rock
trout run roaring branch cedar ledge pine valley
montour falls rock stream
some wither before blooming not sustained
energy from physics little understood

light rail at sunrise
(the cornerstone for the baltimore and susquehanna railroad, which would later become the northern centail railroad, was laid near north avenue in 1829)