Tag: inner harbor

screw pine master

parade of sail into estuary abdomen
seas into forests into mountains
over a helix into steel and copper canals
vast parallel empty in sunlight
black red yellow white pour into valleys and peaks
vaporized by multicolored flames lightning flashes
into a tall ship made of everything
sweeping toward invisibility as pearls of ice radiate from the rigging
breath stolen from the ocean dying in search of truth
as the earth spirals in the ship turns around like a shadow puppet
closing on a perfect mirror of rocks and rain
to explode in splinters and shreds of union
rising up and floating mites of color in one giant nova parachuting like a flower

inner harbor at sunrise
(the dewaruci, one of 31 tall ships calling on baltimore in 2000, sailed from indonesia)

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”)