was iris

cast –
long jawed spider  
chorus
catbird/blue flag iris
george
oro and pablo                                        
mulan
perdida

                            
long jawed spider –
i walk and weave
over by water offering
streaming silver
to suns and moons
 
chorus –
they find places 
pools in circles fountain
pipe stone maple lily
berry hyacinth reeds
 
long jawed spider –
high wire to darkness and daylight
stepping here
 
chorus –
or there or here
stoneflies midges
whir tapped waiting web
eight times many hands unfold
 
long jawed spider –
i sail into shade
over this pool
then evening
odd to see catbird just there close
 
chorus –
they poise eight stringed
breathing kite
 
catbird –
you would pass here
undetected
 
long-jawed spider –
i am a traveler
offering silk

catbird –
hide your prayers well
earthbound
walking in air over water
you become me in moonlight
 
chorus –
when ice begins
to still the dew
 
catbird –
i will
mind your prayer
 
chorus –
so it flies away
and into a tall magnolia
 
 
long-jawed spider –
now this night
dew bejewelled
i am not hungry at all
but thirsty
 
chorus –
they pass around the water
back and forth
unencumbering
a leaf falling in gentle wind
 
long-jawed spider –
here in the bush
over a wet stone wall
reeds near the algae
probed by fish
 
a maple
where nothing lands
under the fringe tree
in blackening ginger leaves
 
chorus –
eight are the places
for cloud-like sacs
 
long-jawed spider –
as suddenly as i thought it
catbird perches close
 
chorus –
they stretch their legs
straight out in front and behind
 
catbird –
summer was good to you
and to me
 
chorus –
now the story
of two hundred thousand moons
they stand up stretching
wings outspreading
 
catbird –
you do not see me crouch
as i launch into the air
all around you
soaring but not moving
 
long-jawed spider –
my prayer has summoned
blue flag iris
 
catbird –
now I fall like
light into the pond
 
chorus –
so much breathing sun
lighting dark space
feathers radiate
dissipate
 
falling like fire works
into murky water
sinking floating coalescing
luiminesce
 
blue flag iris –
with the roar of a fire unheard
i swim near the surface
 
chorus –
their luminescence flows
thru one fish two others and next
 
george –
i am ghost-like
many shades of our moon
i am iris 
first sprouting
 
blue flag iris –
from earth to air
edge of small water
large forest
just lovely now in always
 
oro and pablo –
i am fiery silver gold
i am bold dabs black orange
we animate as one
swaying blue in green sea
 
blue flag iris –
what beyond woodland
in forever mostly empty place
 
mulan –
I am all colors
of every fish
watch closely
every lumen bursting fading
 
blue flag iris –
life of eight thousand flowers
as catbird we might see
 
perdida –
i am mostly black mostly white
i leap from the surface
as blue flag iris
shimmer into new morning shadows
 
blue flag iris –
flying as catbird we see
once is something never lost
just once woodland flowers
consume you spider
 
chorus –
they shake the web
a glowing drum
flower of smoke spiraling
something that was here
 
long-jawed spider –
is gone
yet i remain earthbound
 
chorus –
orb weaver sac spinner
wind flute sunlight eater
 
blue flag iris –
our fading blue song
grey wings dark eyes
exhalation toward
swirl of stars

paint over

around a bay-filled gorge sand water clay mix old older mountains volcanoes
clouds tarmac black red all around
ships in port engines on shore steel boxes circled squared
stacks spires brick glass walls towers cylinders cranes cubes stadia in shadow
silted water bubbles up paved over and over war
grey birds flash the yellow sun behind horizon
early morning lightning purple blue white
sweep thru waves
water radiated energy

looking back east from park avenue
(looking back east from park avenue in 2019 – how will a once-inventurous city profiteering from slavery, oil wars, and declining human health look after most of its current life is extinct)

a eutaw place

babies and spiders are water web spanning womb and world

our blue eyed koi leapt out of its pond
so we found it not breathing
on the bricks next day
wait
stop
it belongs to the universe
more than me

forever shriek promenade
how do you not hold a most beautiful flower
and petals start falling

so charlie and i are walking out west
all the way to pan handle
golden gate

from some kind of garden
hope free
braced

a eutaw place fountain at sunrise
(eutaw place was building when skrik was painted – this planet has demonstrated over and over that whatever it comes up with after we are gone will be beautiful)

detergent for capital (fire!)

buckets from the well
with the slavery the wars the biosphere destruction
every stain of sweat
by the river come to launder
all of us washing for the holidays

investment bank and financial services at sunrise
(from reverdy thru catherine and beyond, some feel a need to launder money more vigorously than the rest of us)

things coming bump

phased arrays beamforming parallel
small cell
millimeter waves
one million per mile
more
enhanced mobile low latency machine
surveilling
surveying
surrendering
allaying
some bodies mission gone critical
thy soul alone
threat hardening code refresh
handshake protocol ready
one last free breath
random
convert to thing

small cell at sunrise
(the franchise installing 5g routers on city streets, led by a 9m/year ceo, is paying the city a nominal fee to lease more than 1100 routers to telecom companies charging fees regulated by the federal communications commission—you could be throttled less but you couldn’t pay more)

rock promontory

in west baltimore you find rock
hetch-hetchy-like promontories
but oh my.
elijah.
banners of snow in a winter wind
ice on fire in a spring sunrise
huddled pine swelling ten thousand summers
autumn stalwart big moon mirror
elijah.
death and peace in the mountains
fountain of life
we breathe we climb

park and cathedral at sunrise
(elijah cummings has been fighting the fascist coup since before j20)

windwaters aguasviento

please forgive the language of a rapist
but we are in amerigo no longer
shores mountains plains mountains shores islands
thru two great oceans
pole to pole
walking resting filtering dreaming
the same one breathing
we are
in windwaters
come
por favor disculpe el idioma del violador
pero somos en amerigo ya no
orillas montanas llanos montanas orillas islas
en los dos mares
polo a polo
caminando reposando filtrando sonando
el mismo respirando
estamos
en aguasviento
venido

oak tree at sunrise
(baltimore, surrounding the port of baltimore, strove to welcome in 2018. rip kevin zeese.)

sandstorms

desert ocean moraine bowl mound dune
sand blows in out
moving waiting on
silicon oxygen oxygen nail hair bone
collagen aorta
swirling minerals exploding volcanoes
always digging
never bury

public health office space at sunrise
(the johns hopkins hospital resumed including gender-affirmation surgery in services offered to transgender patients in 2017)