landmayorcouncils

we had rats herding roaches
as we walked behind
west onto odonnell the rats saw a captains ghost and some turned back
the roaches were jumpy arthritic
couldn’t walk without limping
south of patterson the rats felt thunder around behind and more peeled away
the roaches were twitchy sneezing
couldn’t walk without staggering
crossing pratt the rats heard a funeral train whistle and most ran off
the roaches were spitting shitting peeled paint
couldn’t walk anymore
we scooped the roaches into jars and finished our walk
the mayor said he loved catching fireflies we should play more ball
the director said those are baltimore water bugs not the biting kind
so we hauled out broken floorboards and toilets and plaster and mud
and made them dance around the room until the council began to sing
magicheroics in uncitytoo

odonnell street at sunrise
(the baltimore welfare rights organization and residents annie rogers, rosaline lundsford, and others carried out a rent strike in 1978 to get long overdue maintenance for housing)

here and there this and that

facebanging newly opened rose
deep convicted luminous
echoing color
petals brown loam
green blackening sepals leaflitter
dried fruits wingsown gutfermented
earthnectar dispersing shimmering sungrains
ephemeraternal beauty
tinkling symphony in roomsoul
justice came near
stay my love

catholic worker house at sunrise
(mary moylan returned from the underground in 1979, with the help of viva house, which, since 1968, shares love and community in sowebo from 26 south mount street)

floating compressed

precisely positioned stress
randomly self-assembled
sailing in sun
launching out dark
feeding on rusted green leaves
steeling into bright colors
swarming frenzied flight of logic

easy landing at sunrise
(the maryland academy of sciences moved to the inner harbor in 1976, becoming the maryland science center—kenneth snelson installed easy landing in 1977-78)

counter-current realty

fields of ore
slowly rain down coked solar fire updraft
roaring chamber explosion music
softening
exhaling
pooling separate
bleeding trickle into veins
tendriling opiate through biomass
automatrons harvest
feeding engineerimmortal dreams

former steel mill at sunrise
(the 32-story l-blast furnace at sparrows point started operating in 1975—and was demolished in 2015)

in the basis of data available

voices in lines of chairs in a hall
marching steps through a street
signs in a square
electron magnetic moments
disorient and fade in random city
wanting electricity
sustained and renewed
in extradimensional grid of passion

high school at sunrise
(in 1974 many patterson high students and parents protested for the school to remain comprehensive, rather than become a construction trade magnet)