baltimore – Page 26 – sunrise in a small city

corpus chesapeake

from bowleys wharf
a whoosh of steam and shaft and water churning
the first of five million pulses
chugging in the rhythm and patience of pistons
from patapsco to susquehanna to elk to sassafras
to chester to miles to choptank to honga
to nanticoke to wicomoco to pocomoke to james
to york to plankatank to rappahannock to yacomoco
to potomac to patuxent to severn to magothy
five generations of machine and human
amalgamating anthroestuary into analog.
relatively innocent in plying the water
sunrise and morning
midday and afternoon
evening and sunset
through the hours of darkness.
polished steamboats once emanating from the patapsco
in tide-like rhythm

harbor and aquarium at sunrise — (the first steamboat to ply the chesapeake sailed from bowley’s wharf in 1813)

carita romana

there could be robotic mastodons
roaming the city at night by gaslight
eating litter and defecating art.
but our wealth is too employed
for the genius all around.
cimon starves on holiday street

peale at sunrise — (rembrandt peale opened the baltimore museum on holliday street in 1813)

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)

sir arthur brookes victory

exhilarate
watching an empire
melt away before you.
never soon enough

cannon and sunrise — (facing 15,000 maryland soldiers, militia, and citizens fortifying hampstead hill in patterson park, the british stopped their attack on baltimore in 1814 and withdrew)

liberty of the federal republican

silence is treason
and axes, hooks, and other instruments of destruction
have their own noise.
democracy sings
and beating, stabbing, and hot wax
discharge neuromuscular tension.
demagogues gluttons subalterns
trump distinction.
general stricker is not at home, cannot be seen, would do no more