industry – Page 10 – sunrise in a small city

carita romana

there could be robotic mastodons
roaming the city at night by gaslight
eating litter and defecating art.
but our wealth is too employed
for the genius all around.
cimon starves on holiday street

peale at sunrise — (rembrandt peale opened the baltimore museum on holliday street in 1813)

swimming and flying
weaving ocean and wind into a jet stream,
wood and canvass
carved into an arrow hurtling with its bow,
constantly propelled.
swift upon another swifter away in battle.
carrying cargo with express and beauty.
finally refitted for slave transport.
just a rotting rusting weapon

rigging at sunrise — (as world trade required larger shipping vessels in the 19th century, baltimore clippers were repurposed and retrofitted to specialize in transporting slaves and contraband)

approaching the table

morning is warm and still in the low sun
for musters, examinations, and statements
pumps discharging.
there is the fort
the harbor in the distance
before steeples and shot towers.
now waiting

from lazaretto at sunrise — (in 1801 the lazaretto was built across the harbor from fort mchenry)

risingest town

warehouses around the water
tobacco and snuff
wheat and corn and flour and bread
sugar and rum
iron
paper and wool
oak and poplar and mahogany and spruce
tar and turpentine
orange juice and coconuts
rice and cotton
fish and furs and skins
pork and beef and butter and cheese
beeswax and candles
nails and boots and assembling ships.
baltimore bricks

warehouse at sunrise — (in 1799 almost 200 warehouses were clustered around the harbor)

bowleys wharf

mr hanna transacting
on planks on piles of privy waste
and dredgings and oyster shells.
lost his small fortune in too many shipments to trinidad

south and water streets at sunrise — (in 1785 pile driving machines started being used in wharf construction)

zhujiang and patapsco

the eagle and dragon will become each other
only as snake and skunk
horse and hedgehog
goat and rabbit
monkey and moose
rooster and reindeer
dog and deer
pig and puma
rat and squirrel
ox and otter
tiger and wolf.
prosper

seagirt at sunrise — (captain o’donnell first arrived in baltimore town with a cargo of tea, china, silk, and satins from canton in 1785)

doctor stevensons experiment

durum, red, and white
from rolling amber waves
in frederick, baltimore, harford
york and lancaster.
milled and moved across oceans
feeding armies of empire
and the world.
with star power filtered for a billion years

elevator at sunrise — (in 1750 the first cargo of wheat was shipped from fells point to ireland, spurring a boom that established baltimore as a major port city)

in steigers meadow

dispense justice
promote virtue
guarantee harmony
preserve the law
respect property and neighbors
replace ignorance and superstition with knowledge of right and wrong.
inspect flour
cull staves and shingles
measure grain
weigh hay and cord wood.
receive specified fees

courthouse at sunrise — (the baltimore county seat was moved from joppa to baltimore town in 1768 and a courthouse was commissioned to be built on a bluff overlooking jones falls)

water lots

to the channel of the river
that penetrated a ledge
wharves of pine cord
one thousand feet.
named when it ran fast and cold
and the channel was glens and gorges
stretching from sunrise to sunset

old pier at sunrise — (in 1759 two landowners built wharves from gay and lombard streets to avoid the cost of buying a waterfront lot)

back inhabitants

horse, cart, and wagon
clatter over the public bridge
between meadow and marsh
over the stream.
from west and north and east
spinners and weavers, tanners, millers and brewers
barbers and tailors and shoemakers
coopers and wheelwrights and carpenters
butchers and bakers
laborers.
midwives

freeway at sunrise — (jones town and baltimore town, connected by a public bridge over jones falls near gay street, merged in 1745 and were becoming a center of activity for colonists in counties to the north and west)

Category: industry