Tag: militarism

chrysanthemum ruins

adele dreamed of an ancient city
white broken marble maroon crumbled brick
jumbled concrete bright yellow under a morning sun
she soared and circled slowly down
toward a windless world
eddies of dust spiraled undisturbed as voices
mostly gold streaked white purple red
heralds
journals
correspondents
news
she walked with an august gentleman
scattering seeds of autumn flowers blooming as they passed
“lord baltimore is american”
“my maryland”
turning around they stood in a sea
maroon touched with delicate gold

flower exchange at sunrise
(the baltimore florists exchange operated from 1906 to 1918 on franklin and saint paul streets)

waxed bronze

pause over
my appointment with violent death
cause over

sailors and sldiers at sunrise
(the union soldiers and sailors monument was sanctioned in 1906 and dedicated in druid hill park in 1910, roughly coinciding with three failed attempts to disenfranchise maryland african american voters—it was moved to wyman park near 29th and charles streets in 1959 out of the path of the jones falls expressway)

common enemy

in a rain of flowers and cheers
our soldiers fire on people in the streets
between the buildings on the pavement
echo chamber roar
squeezes blood
out of eyes ears nose lungs
briefly faintly tinting the coastal waters
traces of anthropocene

mount royal station at sunrise
(in 1898 the massachusetts sixth, successor to the same regiment attacked by baltimore residents 37 years earlier, marched from the b&o’s recently opened mount royal station to camden station, cheered by citizens enthusiastic about the start of a war with spain)

steel bubbles

privilege
corruption
panic
depression
outrage
revolt
fascism
organization
change
privilege

camden station at sunrise
(in 1877 baltimore citizens sympathetic to striking railroad workers protested mustering the militia to break the strike and attempted to prevent militia from leaving camden station to break strikers in west virginia and western maryland)

will be

armed badged indemnified marshalled and reported
only to know nothing.
one day to learn
integrity communication community and urgency

bank street at sunrise
(the police force was authorized by the state legislature to succeed constables and night watchmen in 1853 but subsequently co-opted by the know-nothing party—the eastern district station on bank street predated the legislation)