Tag: racism

two lights on behind

my baby left me
leaving hate
thinking memory pain
fading understanding why
consciousness unaffected
here with less
is somehow more and more
unemptying emptiness

train and lake after sunrise
(in 1948 a majority of maryland, and baltimore city, voters approved a constitutional amendment authored by baltimore county that restricted the city’s ability to grow)

i believe him

come out here
swollen fruit dumped chemicals long evaporated
into struggle to worklive with respect
and desperation-bred grandiose plans
with new money
from dubai-on-patapsco

from seabury road at sunrise
(cherry hill homes public housing opened in 1945 after the end of world war II—cherry hill is between the middle branch, patapsco river, west patapsco avenue, and 295)

aint it truth

short life shorter youth no other
chew mealy apples chased with gin
phones ringless in mud
begging for moments
haters lovers cash and carry
your innerfish sauteed in streamingsun and flowers
swallow wideyed at ringing bells
someone step out of rainbow
rocking
it could be you

pennsylvania at upton at sunrise
(private thomas broadus was murdered by officer edward bender in 1942 on pennsylvania avenue after a louis armstrong show–2,000 people later marched to annapolis to protest racist police brutality)

honor of selection

common standard
achievement housing health wellbeing
decent living
pleasing and worthy
for up and coming
substandardly housed people in need
carefully selected mainly family
in doomed wasteful toxic industry of allocation
more difficult than providing for all

affordable housing at sunrise
(poe homes affordable housing opened in 1940 on lexington and freemont streets with 298 of 1500 applicants delighted to have a basic human right fulfilled)

one table

infinite mass
measured in a few test tubes
stuffed into some old fruit jars
for days
years
numbered
dense superheated
monarchs spreading through mountains valleys
supernovae

former law school at sunrise
(in 1935 donald murray successfully challenged the racist admissions policy
of the university of maryland law school, then located at redwood and greene streets)

always going somewhere

soldiers rode with sendeh
to hills above the city
“sendeh leave with your auto and turban and medicine
we know it’s you and won’t be tricked”
sendeh smiled as he began to drive away
“soldiers i have already tricked you
with your own medicine.
now wrap your beautiful turbans,
mine is fitted for the highway”

storefronts at sunrise
(during a brief residence in 1933 and 1934, kiowa costonie instigated and helped organize a buy where you can work campaign focusing on racist businesses along pennsylvania avenue)

no adequate compensation

as if
chemistry were alchemy
physics astrology
mathematics numerology
history eugenics
psychology phrenology
poetry telepathy
our best and brightest
might solve the half-life of fear and hatred
the eternity of what was said and done
engineer redress.
and yet
hail hearty noble youth

former high school at sunrise
(founded in 1883, frederick douglass high school was so named in 1925 when it was moved to baker and calhoun streets)