spinning steel booms along
wayside forest rivers streams fields mountains rocks
vibrating in new harmony
prime movers roll like firing cannon
on ribbons and zig zags
superelevation comforts
so many wheels turning
overthrowing
a red fox trots toward the rising sun
along the seam the b&o
weaves through west baltimore warehouses.
the seam a vein of steel
hauling endeavor into dreamland
among the trumpeting morns
severe beauty from functional design
changes in the internal energy of a liquid that solidifies and cools
molten lead like freezing rain.
a body in the suns warmth
flying
stockjobbers request your presence
near the pilings in the sediment
to build load and unload.
until they wash out to sea
warranted for any voyage or climate
most delicate animal substances for sea stores and inland consumption
served up at any moment
watchmen asleep or in reverie
disregard the black bears and horses
golden lambs and white swans
native queens and general wayne
levitating half-lit globes and hands
hovering in the dark streets
among quiet fountains.
one teamster trundles through
three riders trot separate ways
a boy leads horses around from an alley
reckoning on a rising sun.
a crescendo
of covered wagons riders coaches carts
carriers fetchers trompers striders
seems loud and real
saved from fire
a dome with promenades
harbor views
the capital for trades customs
banking city government
celebrations symposia
anguish for mr lincoln
picking, carding, drawing, roving, spinning,
dressing, warping
at the speed of the falls and allegheny steam.
weaving webs across oceans
eighty bushels per hour
no hands oliver evans system
superfine flour.
the millers weren’t yet alarmed.
certain individuals cornered coal
from bowleys wharf
a whoosh of steam and shaft and water churning
the first of five million pulses
chugging in the rhythm and patience of pistons
from patapsco to susquehanna to elk to sassafras
to chester to miles to choptank to honga
to nanticoke to wicomoco to pocomoke to james
to york to plankatank to rappahannock to yacomoco
to potomac to patuxent to severn to magothy
five generations of machine and human
amalgamating anthroestuary into analog.
relatively innocent in plying the water
sunrise and morning
midday and afternoon
evening and sunset
through the hours of darkness.
polished steamboats once emanating from the patapsco
in tide-like rhythm
