hinzadw – Page 40 – sunrise in a small city

charge bayonets

after battles won by hundreds for ensuing millions
panoramas from the green hills above town.
swept over by demi-tectonics

chase street at sunrise — (colonel howard’s mansion near calvert and chase streets was completed in 1794)

oration upon the moral and political evil of getting it wrong twice

we knew.
to deprive a person to rob their soul
to dwindle into insignificance to eternal infamy
apostates to principal
pursuing destruction propagating vice
rearing youth in habits of cruelty
base collective despotism in unison
citizens as tyrants ignorant of impunity
to be hurled amidst the elements of woe
why do we not step forward eternal will be the disgrace.
perhaps we are merely catalysts for the transfer of heat
from the core to the void.
genocide, enslavement
anthrocide

coal at sunrise — (dr. george buchanan addressed the maryland anti-slavery society in 1791)

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)

bowleys wharf

mr hanna transacting
on planks on piles of privy waste
and dredgings and oyster shells.
lost his small fortune in too many shipments to trinidad

south and water streets at sunrise — (in 1785 pile driving machines started being used in wharf construction)

zhujiang and patapsco

the eagle and dragon will become each other
only as snake and skunk
horse and hedgehog
goat and rabbit
monkey and moose
rooster and reindeer
dog and deer
pig and puma
rat and squirrel
ox and otter
tiger and wolf.
prosper

seagirt at sunrise — (captain o’donnell first arrived in baltimore town with a cargo of tea, china, silk, and satins from canton in 1785)

in the land of land jobbers

in the expensive dirty muddy town
every prayer and petition for the kings majesty
was henceforth omitted.
thoughts turned to france.
small pox was precluded and five million dollars emitted.
they wondered whether the people would eat bread or drink whiskey.
royal portraits were hung upside down.
slaves and convicts worked
while idle sons lived like princes betting on horses, cocks and cards.
general washington
was provided with whatever he may want wherever he may be.
until our unhappy differences are ended

liberty at sunrise — (the continental congress met in baltimore for three months in 1776 and 1777 at a house on baltimore and liberty streets while philadelphia was under threat of british invasion)

two-masted schooners

antelope and buckskin
defence, fidelity and enterprise
harlequin, nonesuch and sturdy beggar
careening and plunging in a gale.
beating to windward along a coast.
before the wind under clouds of canvass.
fresh away before brigs or frigates
on the wide-spread ocean

schooner at sunrise — (baltimore clippers dominated trade and warfare in the late 18th and early 19th centuries)

connecting neighborhoods

shipbuilders and merchants
begin the federation
of common universal convenient active
places.
to live
and buffer adversity

cobbles at sunrise — (80 acres of fells point were annexed to baltimore town in 1773)

doctor stevensons experiment

durum, red, and white
from rolling amber waves
in frederick, baltimore, harford
york and lancaster.
milled and moved across oceans
feeding armies of empire
and the world.
with star power filtered for a billion years

elevator at sunrise — (in 1750 the first cargo of wheat was shipped from fells point to ireland, spurring a boom that established baltimore as a major port city)

lewis hallams lamp

the players came as
old devils, ghosts, and assassins
for families together, young and old
and the fire-new town was happy.
the genii foretold
a thousand fearful wrecks
weeds to grow apace
queens and kings to lose their children
pearls to grow from tears
parents slaughtered and children butchered
shadows of terror
tyrants slain and children freed from the sword.
brothers shedding brothers blood until peace lives again

lamp ghosts at sunrise — (in 1773 performances started in a warehouse near baltimore street—in 1782 a theater built farther east on baltimore street opened with a performance of richard III)