two oarsmen

true defense safety
permanent work mud flat
battle second
wharf pile granite footing
scow pile driver lighter crane
sea wall concrete tremie
steam pile saw levelling dredge
dive bell store
masonry laying stone
filling
stone fort old type
young absent being
fair face devastation

fort carroll at sunrise
(fort carroll was sold by the state of maryland in 1958 and is still privately owned)

twelve minutes

a large backward el
along highlands above a river
through rail oil alluvium
spinestraight façade oceaneast
saattaannaammaa
momentmelodywatergather
rubbberwhirrspistonsechoes
patapsco
darkness
light

tunnel portal after sunrise
(the harbor tunnel opened in 1957 reducing automobile travel time through baltimore via fairfield and canton to philadelphia or dc)

another day

members of port authority met
for the purpose of organizing at the governors office at ten light street.
but for frogman dwight from us virgin islands charm city was to die that day
from planted spybombs
to assassinate governor mayor commissioners capitalism
establish communo-fascist oligarchia nycjobbershippers
at the expense of our fair city.
thanks for superiorintelligence advancedwiretrapping.
uss saratoga steaming to guantanamo
detours quietly up the chesapeake
(secrecy more important than success)
seal team spotted by birdkill counting team—abort.
comes night of frogman do or we die slowly rusting without commerce
dwight come with us special orders
two days of darknesssilence
into the water from launch toward lazaretto
steady breaststrokes not a ripple sound reflection
treading an hour partying sailors meltaway
uponto shore minutebyminute movingnotmoving amphibianunseen
2:07 wet wooden pile
2:08 still pier shadows
2:09 sleeping drunk on pratt
2:10 refuse on lombard corner
2:11 barrels near redwood construction
2:12 boxes near freight elevator
2:13 soundless toes leaping fourtreads fourtreads fourtreads
2:14 spybombs noiselessly collected
2:15 elevator shaft repelling quiet nylon
2:16 darkdoorway
2:17 emptybustop
2:18 blackwall
2:19 nosplash nightbirds unmoving
good judgement professional standards
modernoverall
shippersport
promoted
frogman did

tower at sunrise
(the baltimore port authority met for the first time in 1956 at 10 light street and began centralized, regional management of port facilities in lieu of separate management by the b&o, western maryland, and pennsylvania railroads under city supervision—dwight may have resigned from the usn because racist shore patrol rolled and left to drown a drunk friend of his returning to ship from shore leave)

pleasure dome

fight through pleasant exciting environment
closer to venice urban undiluting
in perplexing injustice awkward triangular
through economic valley in magnetism field
touch side windows out on city
from three small squares
mixintenseuse
on slope bridging superblock

charles center at sunrise
(the greater baltimore committee formed in 1956 and bonds for its first project, charles center– between liberty street, hopkins place, and lombard, charles, and saratoga streets– were approved by voters in 1958)

community relations

any person aggrieved
discriminationsegregation
dwelling opportunity
familial person natural
orientation place public
covenant
population composed
care groups practice place
hardship social
arbitrary age chance equal
liberties
untold anxieties
permanent effects

city hall from gay and saratoga at sunrise
(the city council passed an equal employment ordinance in 1956)

calm afterstorm

after blasts of yells and blows
burn off with fog and mist
block walls painted light green drip
in halls without windows on copper skies
or with grated windows and crossed shadows
children move and pass as whispers
short and long
plump and lank
pale and brown so beautiful
shining tracks
elfish light
blue black green and orange
body of brothers sisters winding into rope
on a lonesome way thru tripping feet and spilled food
on a whirl spinning around
they row

southern high school at sunrise
(after several days of nasty confrontations and some arrests in 1954, students at newly integrated southern high school on warren avenue somehow persevered)

aint there nobody

our heritage irrational fear
disorder
powerlessness
flee into no diagnosis
self-medicate
ahhhypnotherapy demagoguery
newspapers is all
liars

school number 34 at sunrise
(in 1954 racists in pigtown protested school integration at elementary school number 34 on carey street and washington boulevard)

hobby farms

summers in lyndhurst
bundles of hay and rights
hardwood and natural capital
wild sunflowers crows
walk on sparkle of water
live upon land everlasting
roam over josephs horses
sliced bread and scattered crumbs

roekby road at sunrise
(the last keelty rowhouse built in the city was erected in 1954 in edmondson village)

teamsport

fingers strings steel compress release
balls turn in grace
arc in certainty
bounce in rolling chaos
through portals
past counterstrikes
into destinations
antipathyfree
in run stop pass hold launch strike
force finesse
constitutional policepowerfree
lovely spheres
spinning and flying

druid park from beechwood drive at sunrise
(despite a federal district court finding in 1953 that policy prohibiting interracial basketball, tennis, and golf in city parks was not unconstitutional, city parks were desegregated in 1953—one set of plaintiffs had been prevented from playing tennis together in druid hill park)