Tag: fairfield

brown to bright

sun light thru simple path
objectively condensing
immersing in salty nitrogen oxide smog
soaring intrinsic rainbows
living cells absorb and illuminate
radiating color buzzing art and industry
saturating dull forgotten fields
in slow steady streaking detox

brownfield at sunrise
(in 1995 twelve sites on the fairfield peninsula were reclassified from superfund sites to brownfields, creating an opportunity for redevelopment grants the city never managed to use to transform its long history of abusive jurisdiction—as it now fails to seize the opportunity to use brownfields and, in cooperation with the port administration, collocated port facilities to provide clean, sustainable, just power to the entire state of maryland)

both hands on trident

while i was gone
a pretty oily heavy metal unquenchable cruise
lost from calypso
drink the high thunderheads
swallow the strafing carpeting shrapnel walls of rain
cast away churning deep
under speed of sound winds southeast northwest
struggle to surface
to skyscraper higher billowing strike
in awful gloom
scatter

fairfield at sunrise
(in 1993 sea witch salvage began dismantling the uss coral sea and the uss illusive at a fairfield shipyard, and proceeded to endanger workers and dump asbestos, oil, scrap, paint chips, and other pollutants into the patapsco until sun reporters took notice in 1995)

weapons from somewhere in passing

from the quickly forgotten morning mist of small orchards
a deer and two black dogs walked out together
and on the edge of tarmac and weed lawn under a stray peach tree
laid down to die after a last meal of rotting fruit
their souls together becoming viscous clear to pale-yellow
dwelled in and haunted the tanks of alcolac and kromfax
and travelled across wide oceans
to rain down on towns and battlefields in mesopotamia and persia
torturing and killing the sons of a father
who would lift up a scimitar to cut off the head of brave merchants
undissuaded by fantastic stories of magic and retribution

chemical tanks at sunrise
(in 1987 a fairfield industrial chemical manufacturer began selling and shipping unheard of quantities of the main ingredient of mustard gas to criminals who sold it to iraq and iran who used it to kill thousands of soldiers and civilians)

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)

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)