Category: environment

crane buddha and toad

an august early morning
in city brick asphalt soil grass and trees julyabsorbed
a red brown black toad poised unglazed as clay
on a knee of buddha turned away from his gaze
from high unseen rare untimely
a grey crane alights on buddhas head
a glorious globe unfolding in the sun
ball of medicine paper burning with color and flowering stigma
crane folds its wings in predatory prayer
toads beautiful heart beats faster and broken
buddha smiles
after eating an ant and lichen toad hops to arbor vitae
crane loosens and swallows a stone of clay and spirals away
buddha remains serene eroding
cast toad into the city and crane into the world
to share hunger
for wet muddy reeds and rice in unsplit unfused atoms of drenching rain

buddha at sunrise
(in 1994 artist, teacher, and peace activist noriko ikaga formed the statue of buddha near dickson and lafayette streets—act for peace http://www.icanw.org/)

oceanwell

waves crashing on a shore
ears dissolving
reach far into a universe of sound
where we live by the sea
deep low base pulses slowly
underwater
one day the sun will swallow you
soon enough in ecstasy
now is our one time together
swim with me

penn north at sunrise
(penn north, maryland community health initiatives, opened on pennsylvania avenue, just south of north avenue, in 1993)

both hands on trident

while i was gone
a pretty oily heavy metal unquenchable cruise
lost from calypso
drink the high thunderheads
swallow the strafing carpeting shrapnel walls of rain
cast away churning deep
under speed of sound winds southeast northwest
struggle to surface
to skyscraper higher billowing strike
in awful gloom
scatter

fairfield at sunrise
(in 1993 sea witch salvage began dismantling the uss coral sea and the uss illusive at a fairfield shipyard, and proceeded to endanger workers and dump asbestos, oil, scrap, paint chips, and other pollutants into the patapsco until sun reporters took notice in 1995)

reionize

measured unmeasured states
bathed in stellar wind
click
explosive expansion waves excite a planet
shapeshifters save us
from dying in half sky

space institute at sunrise
(a meeting on the status of women in astronomy was convened in 1992 at the space telescope institute at 3700 san martin drive)

hellrule

a soul is untouched unknown
just beyond the vast universe of space
in each synapse
edgeplace peerover lookinto
glorious light
clearly unpoisoned

abandoned houses at sunrise
(in 1987 the centers for disease control and the american academy of pediatrics called for removal of all lead-based paint from housing–the accepted safe level of lead in blood continued to be lowered)

weapons from somewhere in passing

from the quickly forgotten morning mist of small orchards
a deer and two black dogs walked out together
and on the edge of tarmac and weed lawn under a stray peach tree
laid down to die after a last meal of rotting fruit
their souls together becoming viscous clear to pale-yellow
dwelled in and haunted the tanks of alcolac and kromfax
and travelled across wide oceans
to rain down on towns and battlefields in mesopotamia and persia
torturing and killing the sons of a father
who would lift up a scimitar to cut off the head of brave merchants
undissuaded by fantastic stories of magic and retribution

chemical tanks at sunrise
(in 1987 a fairfield industrial chemical manufacturer began selling and shipping unheard of quantities of the main ingredient of mustard gas to criminals who sold it to iraq and iran who used it to kill thousands of soldiers and civilians)

tunnelhinge

one of our universi
is a green paper diamond
top and bottom hemmed to each other
vertically pleated in light tapestry
folded upon itself
face creased
spine gently bent
as we nestle in larvae gut
another imaginal disc
is just barely scraped by fort mchenry tunnel–
on solsti pass through going fiftynine or ninetyfive holding your breath
think only justice and peace
you will travel light years or more
toward antennae of love in many worlds–
and back again

tunnel p;ortal after sunrise
(the fort mchenry tunnel opened for traffic and timetravel in 1985)

one percent solutions

a doctor of greed and his consultant
survey blue veins and red arteries
beneath thin white skin of dotted and scarred anthropocene
this time a needle right here
injecting tiny amounts of capitalcaine
capillaries excrete morphund
our doctor lounges in velveteen satisfaction and ecstasy
upthrusts a needle-like finger of steel and silicon
flagtopped
signifying fuck you

william donald schaefer building at sunrise
(merritt savings and loan started building the now william donald schaefer building at six saint paul street before collapsing in 1985 from gross mismanagement and misappropriation; the state paid chase 25 million to take over the business–and in 1993 bought the building for 12 million—starting the wholesale transfer of local financial firms to u.s. and international control)

shadecounter

a sailor returning
holds firm
ninety ways of smelling water
ripping into every meal
aortas veins feeding filtering
nerves ringing in wind
each day a space sealed and stowed
jet propelled through twisting time
on the rim of dim dark implosion
before memory stops

pier 3 at surnise
(the national aquarium opened as the baltimore aquarium in 1981 on pier 3)