infrastructure – Page 6 – sunrise in a small city

pretty boy to loch raven

brook brown and rainbow trout bass and carp
rise shimmering to hatches in deep pools riffles and fast flows
of mayflies caddisflies midges stoneflies
nymphs pupa duns spinners
to grasshoppers beetles ants cicadas crickets inchworms moths
poor fliers swarms
shrimp scuds sowbugs crayfish
leeches
minnows bullheads sculpins
snails craneflies dragonflies damselflies
in eleven cubic feet per second of coldwater
through fields of corn and wheat
cathedrals of eastern hardwood and deposits of salt petre
tasters of our royal cup

lake montebello at sunrise — (in 1881 the city began consuming water from the gunpowder reserved at loch raven supplied to lake montebello on hillen and thirty-third streets)

rapacioutrons

in every atom
of metal in rails ships machines wheels
brick stone in streets walls foundations
wood in chairs beds tables coffins
food
polluted air
treated water
with quarks letpons bosons
interacts a greed hate fear particle
emitting waves in uncertain half-life

old streetcar at sunrise — (baltimore trolleys were desegregated in 1871 as result of a suit filed by john fields—seventy-eight years before rosa parks protested segregated buses)

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)

the polite conductor

sharing speed
destination or direction
space
time
air and light and temperature
moving and waiting glances words faces
together on steel
in wood and glass
streets melt into cinema
animating our city

broadway and thames at sunris — (street car service first started along broadway between the point and baltimore street in 1859)

omnibus from govanstowne

the road heads down rather pretty in sunrise afterglow
out of shadows
steam rises from waiting horses
passengers each silent alone in chilly morning
relaxing for the jolting commute
jarring thundering down to town
where steeples and towers and cobbles
are a red orange brown and grey
from green and purple groves and gardens
sounds of metal hammering steam and shouting join bird songs
around the channel to deep oceans
where markets are made.
now jump down and walk
with women and men whose names you may know

york road at sunrise — (omnibus service started in 1844 to outlying hamlets)

.- ..-. – . .-. –. .— — .–

a meteor
warped into baltimore from washington
the planet seized and shuddered
and aftershocks are running all around our brain

pratt from paca at sunrise — (the first telegraph message arrived on pratt street in 1843)

on the edge of a park

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

rails at sunrise — (the cornerstone for the baltimore and ohio railroad was laid in 1828)

father canton

stockjobbers request your presence
near the pilings in the sediment
to build load and unload.
until they wash out to sea

dockside at sunrise — (the canton company was incorporated in 1829)

corpus chesapeake

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

harbor and aquarium at sunrise — (the first steamboat to ply the chesapeake sailed from bowley’s wharf in 1813)

eyes of water

springs bubble unseen
headwaters in time
to hundreds of billions of gallons from all over.
pumping through

buried spring at sunrise — (the city spring and square constructed in 1810 near calvert and saratoga streets was a place for recreation and gathering)