industry – Page 8 – sunrise in a small city

two antionettes

papa and i made a sèvolan
a bamboo krikèts back
joints turned round and hitched with digo thread
skin of silk from manmans maryaj sentiwon
special days it dansed in the van
in the sky with manman
we call it zwazo

papa said an òm fransè made a zwazo-sèvolan
named antionette like me
we went to see it on a very special day
piknik with taso bannann mamba and dous makos
and zwazo
we walked way up to druid hill

first we saw antionette over the vil
so small
we heard her like a marengwen
closer and bigger and bigger and byen fò
flying over our heads
prettier than zwazo
she circled like a lazy lò
then back over the vil

we are laughing still
in rèv i fly her to manman

from druid hill at sunrise — (in 1910 hubert latham flew an antionette-engine powered plane from halethorpe to fort mchenry, over downtown and patterson park, up to north avenue, around eutaw place then around druid hill park, then south, circling over 1217 saint paul street, over downtown and back to halethorpe–to win prize money offered by baltimore sun owners and also by ross r. winans)

la aventura de cuba y maryland

in tropical light
the white
man
rode the burrow
from santiago hacia las sierra maestra
sobre el rio juragua
robo
hierro duro
de la tierra esponjos

on the semitropical marsh
tons of cold air exploded tons of molten iron
iron and carbon separating and rejoining
with blistered hands
charred faces
mangled arms
fractured skulls
into smooth hard slick steel

y en la selva humeda
on the broken tarmac
ruins
resignation
religion
immitation

brownfields at sunrise — (after buying mineral rights to ore deposits in cuba 1882, the pennsylvania steel company bought sparrows point in 1887 and started producing steel there in 1889)

3641

if the worlds refugees could queue to pier nine
fantasys freedom and mirages bounty
would rise in a vast choir
exhaling the pain of sixteen centuries.
if we were to stop making refugees

pier 9 at sunrise — (in 1868 the steamer baltimore arrived at pier nine on the north shore of locus point from bremen for the first time—by 1914 pier nine was receiving forty thousand immigrants a year—the current world refugee population is estimated to be over sixty-five million)

arch action

five rings of fifteeen million bricks for lateral thrust
compressing space for veins of steel
passing protein and enzyme and impulse
through limbs and organs
of the growing body of human place
wanting more power.
slowly we ride submerged in darkness and strung light
systemic
alone apart atomic

south portal at sunrise — (the first train passed from the south portal of the baltimore and potomac tunnel near gilmore street to the north portal under north avenue in 1873)

spindle principle

no one notes the dark steel serpent
low almost submerged steaming out of middle branch
sleek and cutting
sailing time
plodding along dry sea-beds
yachting through silent oceans
no omen marks the shoals and canyons
only the wake resonates

middle branch at sunrise — (ross winans began building innovative but unsuccessful steamships in 1858 near what is now swann park)

49ers

they would fly clouds ride comets
cross witches transit celestial
swim with sword fish challenge oceans around so called america
in long running ships with massive sail
they would climb through agricola alpes apenninus archimedes
carpatus caucasus cordillera
haemus harbinger
jura
pyrenaeus
recti riphaeus rook
secchi spitzbergen
taurus teneriffe.
boldly they would ride into al-qahira ares auqakuh
bahram
dao
harmakhis her-desher hrad huo-hsing
kasei
labou
ma’adim maja maders mangala marikh marte mawrth
nanedi nirgal
reull
shalbatana simud
tiu.
they would seek for eldorado

sugar plant at sunrise — (many clippers designed and built in baltimore sailed around cape horn carrying fortune seekers in the mid-19th century)

metal of cyprus

from massive stars
the spark of every respiration
rolled and coiled around the world
so breathe the machines

cuba street at sunrise — (copper manufacturing was pioneered in locust point and canton starting in 1845)

inland harbor

fog wanders in not so often
like a thirsty stray dog
walking up the bay
a quiet flock of birds from the west
suddenly all around
becoming the chilling air
lingering
not moving on.
at last melting away

harbor at sunrise — (less fog helped the port of baltimore compete with the new york port in the 19th century)

el viaje guano

the most tricky scoundrels
with soaring trees and deep bogs
loam peat clay sand
animalia prokaryota
breathing
the slim skin.
we etch tattoo and seal
scratch bleach and scar
girdling
scattering salve
a whirling doctor
haunted by raspy echoing
that brings no rain
pero tal vez olor amoniaco

compton street at sunrise — (the fertilizer industry was pioneered in federal hill—the first shipment of guano from peru arrived in 1832)

with sense of public purpose

steel rhizomes patapsco to ontario
stems rise and spread flowering brick and pavement
woodberry blue mount bentley springs glen rock
trout run roaring branch cedar ledge pine valley
montour falls rock stream
some wither before blooming not sustained
energy from physics little understood

light rail at sunrise — (the cornerstone for the baltimore and susquehanna railroad, which would later become the northern centail railroad, was laid near north avenue in 1829)