Tag: racism

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)

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)

potash and fishmeal

mask wearers sweat in worsening cargo warehouse
taste feel smell hear see wealth
blowing to least resistance
brace lift carry turn choke
on fertilizer fantasy

ILA local office at sunrise
(two segregated international longshoremens association locals were forced by the federal government to merge in 1970)

day without

thou shalt not believe in
victory dollar
victory vote
winning love
detached voice
common enemy
single-sourced fact
warstrategem
labelism
natural state nationarchy
killing

hospital at sunrise
(in 1969 local 1199 organized hospital and nursing home workers and negotiated for decent wages, good working conditions, job security, respect, and dignity with johns hopkins)

free agnew confrontation

random bestial power coursing
bunches of quakers praying
so many reminders
cars careening
in the same cell suffering
most solitary sadnesses
tiny shards in strong wind
bodies along to get it wrong
if only a law is just life celebration

maryland avenue at sunrise
(the baltimore defense committee, operating out of 2525 maryland avenue, organized several days of nationally prominent anti-war and social justice protests in 1968 during the trial of the catonsville 9)

 

best that ever

my violent law
my oppressing order
knees locked heels digging
lookup bluesky reeling
silhouettes surround swirling circling
smoke and flames
your hope despair your rage
my war

president street at sunrise
(criminal and governor spiro agnew mistook a hole in the ground after several days of unrest after martin luther king jr. was murdered in 1968, condescending to community leaders in his president street office)

radio message to silk stockings

large shattering glass windows
rage coming up the road
coursing action
shockwaves
human lithosphere elastic
subsiding in eerie melody of alarms
then sunlit bayonets
faultlines recharging

gay street at sunrise
(several days of unrest resulting in twelve million dollars of property damage in 1968 first started in the four hundred block of gay street two days after martin luther king jr. was murdered)

polite explosion

was it new light
absent shadows
bold lines emerging contrast
absorbing and radiating strength
or universe in random beauty

brooklyn homes at sunrise
(marian johnson, and several other families, endured racist intimidation throughout 1967 integrating brooklyn homes in south baltimore, and endured)

things and charity

in a hall of heroes who died in vain
the loyal knew well the spoils of faith
a cardinals call rang out and up
measured
echoing
falling like ash from a smokestack
then billowed back up
pouring out behind the council
and down the wide back stairs
a chorus of misled greed and hate
in awful polyphony with the rich father of mercy

war memorial at sunrise
(in 1966 at a city council meeting at the war memorial, hundreds and hundreds of the two thousand citizens attending booed cardinal sheehan’s advocacy for open housing legislation—which was, for the third time in three years, voted down by the council)