Tag: baltimore

city in city

mortar melting and blowing away
through night and day
when time lapse
rises a fiery vision quest
expanding wings eyes mouths pulsing
roaring diffused
many thousands dream

oceans right down hill
absorb soaring vision after vision after vision
space beyond absorbs ocean after ocean
absorbs itself
music diffused
many more thousands dream

gothic high school at sunrise
(city college high school moved from center and howard streets to its present location on a hill between the alameda, loch raven boulevard, and thirty-third street in 1928)

no adequate compensation

as if
chemistry were alchemy
physics astrology
mathematics numerology
history eugenics
psychology phrenology
poetry telepathy
our best and brightest
might solve the half-life of fear and hatred
the eternity of what was said and done
engineer redress.
and yet
hail hearty noble youth

former high school at sunrise
(founded in 1883, frederick douglass high school was so named in 1925 when it was moved to baker and calhoun streets)

communitycide

commissioners sprawl about the table
misters bonefish, toadley, macflie, spongeson, and mahlisck
overwhelming putrid farting with donated cigar smoke
dulling single minds with gifted liquor
playing pocketpool with rolls of dough
sharing needles of noxious high
too many kings in the strange deck
they gamble away
children asleep by a coalbin outside
dream of greenfields and bent fishingpoles

southern districts shoreline at sunrise
(in 1922 southern and eastern districts were zoned entirely, including pockets of existing communities, for heavy industry)

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)

self avoided sprints rewarded

instructed
arrayed performance
vessels in waves crystalling flaking cratering branching networking ranging faulting striking
contracted minutes
lub dub murmur crackle whistle rub gasp grate gallop
ball flying in soaring out snapping to connecting with arcing across
with turf wood leather steel cotton wool plastic
mud grass lime tar resin sweat lager ale sugar meat
pant snort tap crunch squelch pop crack thud whack shout roar thunder
sun mist bright grey spotlight backdrop green brown black orange blue mottled pixels in time
into pitches snaps strikes yards seconds outs downs bases hashes innings possessions runs points games series seasons
pieces process symmetry chaos

home plate sunrise
(municpal stadium, later rebuilt and renamed into memorial stadium, was built in 1922 on thirty-third street and ellerslie avenue)

been ever since

turn on the faucet
rains here run to stormy sea
clouds walk by
streets whisper doomsday
towncity left alone
they dont come
blues about
hush now
dont quit me
long way to go

royal sunrse
(the douglass theater, later renamed the royal, opened in 1921 on pennsylvania avenue and lafayette street)

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)