Category: labor

red sticks in a swamp with sea snails

a steel vessel of army trucks
dieselsteamturbining into coastal marsh
attracting limpets alarmed now exploding
sinks into defoliated biome 

brownfield water treatment plant at sunrise, sparrows point
(steel production stopped at sparrows point in 2012 when the plant was sold to a liquidator–the bethlehem fairfield-built baton rouge sank in the nine dragon river delta in 1966)

primary secondary mover

an infant opening closing opening a red tin box
fingers humanizing deities we bore
shifted shape shifting shape every twist a tool of creation
breathing batteries of skill connecting

tool library near cemetery at sunrise, east oliver street, baltimore
(station north tool library began operating on oliver street in 2013)

curtz v bombadil

now we lose our river daughter
burrowing further down
thorium mobile radio nuclide
metamorphic rock
born
water lilies sun sinking
open hill living pool
years end down deep forest water
dark door opens wide
world self mend unborder

toxic pollutants and NOx at sunrise, south baltimore, patapsco
(in 2010 brandon shores and wagner stations began releasing over two million pounds of toxic pollutants per year onto south baltimore, who remains in the ninety-ninth percentile in the u.s. for exposure to toxic releases–NOx from burning the coal is also killing the chesapeake bay)

21 grams per kilometer$

in a visional future saddles soaronrubber tarmac hardpack
framesbarshands on pedalcranksprockethubs chains maneuvering
quickfast radiusslik shortstart
bananaseated anthromechanicobutteringflyrays
connecting recreating flythruemployride
flamboyantlime radiantcoppertone skybklueviolet
bicyclingunity
road
silverglowcoastering

former bicycle collective at sunrise
(the first city bicycle master plan was published, and the velocipede bike project opened at lanvale and morton streets, in 2006)

where is the bridge

pictures and stories are windows in walls i don’t see past
a black mirror
warm blood on skin yellow white black
someone washing away toward a vast ocean
i navigate by echo

red black yellow white at sunrise
(the reginald f lewis museum of maryland african american history and culture opened on president and pratt streets in 2005)

trying to believe

that is around the corner
poised to invade and press
killing opportunity
stepping through mirrors and windows i express
my naivety
smells and words in thoughts in harmony
moments stretching toward eternity

former bookstore at sunrise
(red emmas bookstore and coffee shop first opened at 800 saint paul street in 2004)

kilocalories per capita

welcome
festively slim and trim
baking inspiration
pure cane dark light white
sticky brown removed
crystals like time
sprinkled through canneries and pharmacies and photogalleries
moving hands and feet on whirling explosion electric machines
excess manufacturing amnesia

whirely crane at sunrise
(the baltimore museum of industry, founded in 1977, hosted the award of the first schaeffer industrialist of the year award, which honored a domino sugar executive, in 2004)

ibeam

steel rolled out of marsh grass
spanning miles rising stories
web and flange
ground substance
bones tissue bound
arteries recoiling
hands on scaffold
keep us
twist bend and shear

brownfield after sunrise
(wilbur ross bought sparrows point from bethlehem steel in 2003, sticking taxpayers with money owed to workers and stiffing workers out of contracted health insurance)