Category: industry

checkerboard crew

paddy on atlantic highway
tearing through gale ice and rain
bells ringing
stars bearing
course possessed
seas spitting whiskey breath
art of scars gold of brass
love my brother seaman
or kiss my fucking ass

harbor watch at sunrise
(in 1937 paddy whalen and others who would establish the integrated national maritime union marched on washington dc to secure the right to organize—the national maritime union and the predecessor seamen’s defense committee in the city worked out of 702 eastern avenue)

scenick

canned oriole-two-matoes
engineered to deliver the power of eighty-seven tomatoes
encapsulated
transport in container-chains through china to mars
in custom gravity
switch spiral radio direct
vitamins ac trickle in synthetic genius
relieve future-loneliness
remind used to know

models at sunrise
(the baltimore model engineering society, started in 1932, operates 2,322,576 square centimeters of rail transport at 225 west saratoga)

by numbers

four . . . .
dimensions
radicals
truths
questions
aims
books
freedoms
types
states
forces
squares around intersection
eight short of riot
or just manageable extermination
for supply of demand

clothing factory at sunrise
(in 1932 schoenemans was granted an injunction to limit amalgamated clothing workers striking against abusive working conditions to four picketers at a time—city police attempted to enforce the injunction at the schoenemans factory at redwood and paca streets)

communitycide

commissioners sprawl about the table
misters bonefish, toadley, macflie, spongeson, and mahlisck
overwhelming putrid farting with donated cigar smoke
dulling single minds with gifted liquor
playing pocketpool with rolls of dough
sharing needles of noxious high
too many kings in the strange deck
they gamble away
children asleep by a coalbin outside
dream of greenfields and bent fishingpoles

southern districts shoreline at sunrise
(in 1922 southern and eastern districts were zoned entirely, including pockets of existing communities, for heavy industry)

eyes in the sky

after the parade with torches and horses
fireflies everywhere
a tug of war on the steep hill
shouting pulling as father inched up
the tower light shining down behind him
“hands off!”
we heaped into the dirt just like that

mill tower at sunrise
(in 1923 after the owners of the mount vernon mills, at the end of chestnut street, failed to negotiate for several months on working hours and pay, workers ended the unsuccessful strike)

how far you go

leeward
to peas beans melons cantaloupes asparagus crabs oysters
orchards picnics
sick sailors immigrants dying contagious with mary
suburban mirage manguano cannery company town
baseball beer dancing burlesque
manufactury refinery petrolasphaltchemicalpool rails
gastank smokestack waste
liberty victory jumboizing containerizing
community clutching sandymuddyoiled rubbishroad
to fairfieldbrownfield
and beyond
to pleasant prospect adventure utopia
sweating river

brdge at sunrise
(in 1916 the hanover street bridge, now vietnam veterans memorial bridge, over the middle branch of the patapsco, replaced the long bridge between light street and fairfield)

chrysanthemum ruins

adele dreamed of an ancient city
white broken marble maroon crumbled brick
jumbled concrete bright yellow under a morning sun
she soared and circled slowly down
toward a windless world
eddies of dust spiraled undisturbed as voices
mostly gold streaked white purple red
heralds
journals
correspondents
news
she walked with an august gentleman
scattering seeds of autumn flowers blooming as they passed
“lord baltimore is american”
“my maryland”
turning around they stood in a sea
maroon touched with delicate gold

flower exchange at sunrise
(the baltimore florists exchange operated from 1906 to 1918 on franklin and saint paul streets)

precincts belts boroughs

carotid arteries reaching
into mind
onto face
move with moon
feed sun oxygen iron metalion
wash waste
oceanland
waterrock
planktonfungi
towncounty
harborfarm
portindustry
urbanrural
tidal rivers into cityorganic
through talltufted reeds
winds piping away

middle branch at sunrise
(in 1918 areas west and south of middle branch and around curtis bay, and immediately-surrounding suburbs west, north, and east were annexed in the interest of commerce: port control and size matters)

styleplus

war to knife to hilt
fraying
flaying pinking shearing
brawling
rolling
pistol shotting
hacking
out into streets
spreading cutting stickering fusing sorting stitching
eddies of fists and flailing
slowly unoppose
fuse
swirl together in a rising flood of flashing steel
to wash against
great floating capitals of mislaid granite

clothing factory at sunrise
(struggles between united garment workers and amalgamated clothing workers unions erupted into a melee in the sonneborn clothing factory on pratt and paca streets in 1916)