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)

inpatientcity

breathing shallow sweating dizzy
numb blurred not thinking through
diagprescribed
fractionally distilled elixirpolymers
combpestled
mechanical opiates of directforce
supremely lucrative to attending charlycians
breathingeatingpissingshitting monetizedlifeforce
incapitalpathology

powerplant at sunrise
(in 1948 the national city lines holding company funded by gm, standard oil, firestone, and phillips added complete control of the baltimore transit company, which was powering electric streetcars from its plant on pratt street, to its collection of almost fifty soon-to-be disinvested and dismantled city streetcar utilities across the country)

honor of selection

common standard
achievement housing health wellbeing
decent living
pleasing and worthy
for up and coming
substandardly housed people in need
carefully selected mainly family
in doomed wasteful toxic industry of allocation
more difficult than providing for all

affordable housing at sunrise
(poe homes affordable housing opened in 1940 on lexington and freemont streets with 298 of 1500 applicants delighted to have a basic human right fulfilled)

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)

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)

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)

entrails

downhill
miles and miles
constantly falling
widening
crossing branches runs tunnels
pushed with petrol hearts
into settling solution
bacterial food
intestines reach like tentacles
throughout the underground
consumption dynamos
resonating in large hissing hum

cemetary wall at sunrise
(in 1906 at ensor and lanvale streets digging started for the sewage system)

boulevards to parks

along across ridges valleys
from city streets
through open forested uplands
water highways flatlands
from patterson to herring run back river bear creek
lexington to elkridge through halethorpe
lafayette to elicott through catonsville
druid hill to gwynns falls roland montebello
wyman to loch raven through towson
montebello to loch raven clifton
clifton to patterson
herring run to loch raven
green ways
in arcing sun
walking
in jet stream

toward golf course at sunrise
(many recommendations in the report upon the development of public grounds for greater baltimore by the olmstead brothers published in 1904 have been adopted—except our great parks remain unconnected)