Category: environment

ibeam

steel rolled out of marsh grass
spanning miles rising stories
web and flange
ground substance
bones tissue bound
arteries recoiling
hands on scaffold
keep us
twist bend and shear

brownfield after sunrise
(wilbur ross bought sparrows point from bethlehem steel in 2003, sticking taxpayers with money owed to workers and stiffing workers out of contracted health insurance)

bioindicating

some cells are windows from outside
stacked in rows and stories
city block
building as spread sheet of data

or
people asking compromised questions
full status as persons
individuals as it
disembodied
identities fade
strenuous humanity
deleading the nation
enfeebled pseudopragmatism
power of realestatecapital like electricity mistransformed
destroying lives

institute at sunrise
(in 2001 the maryland court of appeals upheld a decision that kennedy krieger institute violated the human rights of families and children by unnecessarily exposing them to lead in order to study misguided partial abatement methods–no level of lead in their bodies is safe for children)

for jeannettes

slowly toward a city across the harbor
dolls eyes look from thickets
wild ginger dewsteeps pathside
trout lilies greenyellow bottomland
in breathing footfall rhythm
bottlebrush grass laces remnant wood
wild-rye sews small streambanks
purpletop rattles unpaved road
in thinking breathful melody
nodding bur marigolds pool dark mirrors
sneezeweed runs ditches and marsh
frostweed mounds vacant lotmeadows
in warmingchilling chorded nervemuscle
inkberries assort waxwings
winterberries cluster robins
skunk cabbages unfold turkeys
in echoing faint chorus
this year is my passing song
my love the walking minutes

cove at sunrise
(lifelong wagners point resident and activist jeannette skrzcek died in 1998 from liver and colon cancer)

phone mesh

animal carcasses in alleys
poisoned cats bloodied dogs abandoned horses
sand and mud sedimenting into tunnels under streets
virtuous delusion
obscure good
wicked favor
stones sharp shards and sewage in sidewalks and roadways
oh from the sea that surrounds us
yellow copper stoppered with lead
ringing opens the seal
power appears in fog and smoke
speak civilly and firm with empathy and hope
cast your net
give the brightly colored fish to your sultan

city offices at sunrise
(the first 311 service in the united states was piloted here in 1996, with help from the department of justice community oriented policing services office, to reduce 911 call volume—in 2000 call data started being analyzed to evaluate performance of city agencies)

in the eye of turtle island

when i withdraw
look out at my back spreading like the life of a mountain
i’m not sure the bipeds will learn i am here in some way to save them
from surviving only as machine

herring run at sunrise
(the mid-atlantic turtle & tortoise society incorporated in 1997 using po box 22321
In zipcode 21203—turtles have been on earth for a quarter of billion years, schist in herring run for half a billion, and gneiss in herring run for a billion)

underlying patapsco

floating in the streets on the water
a time mirage
the beginning of value trust exploitation
winds earthfired and solar sweep across
chappedsmooth hands dangle and grasp from walking torsosleeves
their notions predatory desperate seek dissipating warm glow
rocks that burn
pieces of stars
promises
molded earth
minted metal
words that echo in dopamine
calculated payments
breathing dying debtors to the sun

church window at sunrise
(alex brown and sons, the baltimore-based first investment bank in the united states, was sold to bankers trust in 1997 and absorbed into deutsche bank two years later—brown memorial park avenue presbyterian church on park avenue and lafayette streets memorializes george, alexander’s son)

really big show

singing strutters drift in from deep ocean
whistling stomping
squealing plucking
barking blowing
chuckling serenading
wailing swirling
in blue orange black white
gathered separate focused diffused
sculpting color
windows doors poles trees cars cobbles frame
water flowing exploded fading
shops steps
assembling arranging
out of unseen sayers seers
neighboring culturing
pause
play
flying in timelight

fell street at sunrise
(the creative alliance started out as the fells point creative alliance from margaret footner’s café on fell street in 1995)

noplace

rescued superfluidities
coursing through shared pipes stopping combined gloria conservation mass
blistering superchilled chemicals proud and seething
defying the simple air surrounding
lording atoms
great continuance uncommoded
serene industrial sharing
shall congregate and mingle in fellowship
letting a long beautiful utopian scream

caol pier at sunrise
(in 1995 the fairfield peninsula was designated an ecological industrial park, and industrial symbiosis spontaneously and completely transformed the city, region, and state)

pando human

walk into a forest trembling gold silver yellow
see six thousand tons ringing breathing as one grain
taste pollen blooming ten thousand springs
walk forty thousand feet of dispersed light with each step
hear forty thousand engines working in whisper
smell eighty thousand sun orbits as one second
meaning has found you

cosmic galaxy egg at sunrise
(the american visionary opened at 800 key highway in 1995 with the tree of life—andrew logan sculpted cosmic galaxy egg in 2004)