unsettled i swarm a multitude
invading this place
cycling through so many sundays
greeting strangers in wooded undulating water vistas
an ideal passenger leaving little trace
wanting clear city springs unbuilt boulevards streetcars
primordial flocks and schools of birds and fish.
until i just breath
armed badged indemnified marshalled and reported
only to know nothing.
one day to learn
integrity communication community and urgency
a city-county with a senator and just so many delegates
free sane white males
not governed by duelists
with masters and slaves
three courts
fixed justice
and temporary additional police
excluded from opportunities of respectability in humble confinement
from condescended illusions of independence.
a missed opportunity for assimilated cultural genocide
see the day when ignorance will its adherents lose and bigotry its disciples
newfangledisms
with enterprise and capital
rivals and factions
mechanical union friendship deptford liberty
federal independent vigilant new market
columbian first baltimore united fells point franklin
washington patapsco howard watchman lafayette
monumental pioneer western mount vernon
united.
woodframes and roaring flames
pellmell and terror
lighted windows and leather buckets and lanemen
white hatted officers axe hook and ladder men
sooty sweeps climbing to the sky.
street fights of children following engines home
hooting for their companies with fists sticks stones and missiles
brawling and letting blood.
fires fought and conquered with zeal and daring
resolve that however valuable as a fireman a member may be
if he is constitutionally turbulent and quarrelsome
it were better to dispense with his services
bursting thunderbolts
throb the heads
of wandering few in sunny streets
silent as night,
fearing vomit black like coffee grounds
hiccup hiccup hiccup hiccup hiccup hiccup
aching eyes red turning yellow
sweated skin dried and chill
ears and nose bleeding
stupor delirium deranged sense of return to health
doctors letting blood and dosing mercury
cart rides to hospitals where insane might wail and call.
business stagnates and banks oppress
in a labor-scarce economy
for violations upon the lives, liberties or property, of others
in response to public outrage at the spectacle of convicts laboring on roads
solitary confinement, common silence, and hard labor.
operated profitably
remove public nuisances
provide safety and health
sustain streets, harbor, sewers, and bridges
regulate markets
prevent and extinguish fires
impose fines penalties and taxes
with crudely arranged defective municipal reports.
perpetually
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
