Tag: federal hill

fully lighted with fires

benjamin franklin butler camps in the warrens under federal hill
each day slowly in full uniform walks to the artillery
fires a shot into the heart of our city
our soldiers die east west southeast southwest
we have not surrendered
have not been destroyed
until we lift overhead our swords
then humbly lay them down
he pummels us like slowly dripping water

urban revelopment at sunrise
(a 1983 a civil rights commission assessment of city economic development recommended greater effort to foster black businesses, more equitable commercial lending, increased city contracting with black businesses, increased access to technical and management training for black community members, more aggressive corporate affirmative action, more relevant job training for unemployed community members, and immediate and concerted action to reduce unemployment—the mayor’s office responded that it was false to assume “that a government like ours bears sole responsibility for producing results”)

el viaje guano

the most tricky scoundrels
with soaring trees and deep bogs
loam peat clay sand
animalia prokaryota
breathing
the slim skin.
we etch tattoo and seal
scratch bleach and scar
girdling
scattering salve
a whirling doctor
haunted by raspy echoing
that brings no rain
pero tal vez olor amoniaco

compton street at sunrise
(the fertilizer industry was pioneered in federal hill—the first shipment of guano from peru arrived in 1832)

commodore barney and hobart brown

a boatswains pipe called
to make sail and take them in again.
four horses pulled it in step
on front of the parading crews,
then the tiny federalist sailed.
to warmest expressions of ingenuity

kinetic sculptures
(maryland’s ratification of the federal constitution in 1788 was celebrated on philpot’s hill, which was subsequently renamed federal hill)