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)

checkerboard crew

paddy on atlantic highway
tearing through gale ice and rain
bells ringing
stars bearing
course possessed
seas spitting whiskey breath
art of scars gold of brass
love my brother seaman
or kiss my fucking ass

harbor watch at sunrise
(in 1937 paddy whalen and others who would establish the integrated national maritime union marched on washington dc to secure the right to organize—the national maritime union and the predecessor seamen’s defense committee in the city worked out of 702 eastern avenue)

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)