Category: politics

underlying patapsco

floating in the streets on the water
a time mirage
the beginning of value trust exploitation
winds earthfired and solar sweep across
chappedsmooth hands dangle and grasp from walking torsosleeves
their notions predatory desperate seek dissipating warm glow
rocks that burn
pieces of stars
promises
molded earth
minted metal
words that echo in dopamine
calculated payments
breathing dying debtors to the sun

church window at sunrise
(alex brown and sons, the baltimore-based first investment bank in the united states, was sold to bankers trust in 1997 and absorbed into deutsche bank two years later—brown memorial park avenue presbyterian church on park avenue and lafayette streets memorializes george, alexander’s son)

brown to bright

sun light thru simple path
objectively condensing
immersing in salty nitrogen oxide smog
soaring intrinsic rainbows
living cells absorb and illuminate
radiating color buzzing art and industry
saturating dull forgotten fields
in slow steady streaking detox

brownfield at sunrise
(in 1995 twelve sites on the fairfield peninsula were reclassified from superfund sites to brownfields, creating an opportunity for redevelopment grants the city never managed to use to transform its long history of abusive jurisdiction—as it now fails to seize the opportunity to use brownfields and, in cooperation with the port administration, collocated port facilities to provide clean, sustainable, just power to the entire state of maryland)

warehousing them

dicktracy: when will you fix the faulty wiring
herniahernia: we might use some of the wiring to electrocute the roaches
dicktracy: the leaking pipes
herniahernia: they are imbedded in the concrete, as are the leaky gas pipes which poses slightly less danger
dicktracy: the rats come through the holes in the walls and ceilings
herniahernia: we are studying that, if convenient direct them out the broken windows
dicktracy: you could change the lightbulbs and keep the grounds clean
herniahernia: when we fix things they break, we’re saving money in hopes of destroying everything
dicktracy: it’s always cold in the winter
herniahernia: we’ve arranged to have milk delivered
dicktracy: can’t you just maintain working order, i don’t want to be in this war anymore
herniahernia: i won’t say there is nothing i can do

lexington terrace at sunrise
(lexington terrace residents protested unacceptable living conditions with a rent strike in 1993)

undercrowding

acetylsalicylic bricks
antihistamine mortar
suppressant lumber
symptomtreatmentatosis
blasts multiply

struggling street at sunerise
(in 1993 mayor schmoke led a 130 million building program in sandtown to eliminate vacants and provide affordable housing that utterly failed to relieve the community)

one percent solutions

a doctor of greed and his consultant
survey blue veins and red arteries
beneath thin white skin of dotted and scarred anthropocene
this time a needle right here
injecting tiny amounts of capitalcaine
capillaries excrete morphund
our doctor lounges in velveteen satisfaction and ecstasy
upthrusts a needle-like finger of steel and silicon
flagtopped
signifying fuck you

william donald schaefer building at sunrise
(merritt savings and loan started building the now william donald schaefer building at six saint paul street before collapsing in 1985 from gross mismanagement and misappropriation; the state paid chase 25 million to take over the business–and in 1993 bought the building for 12 million—starting the wholesale transfer of local financial firms to u.s. and international control)

1984more

the arcing sun shines on dolphin sized patapsco koi
ship sized boulders arrange around the harbor under giant oaks
arabbers walk next to carts loaded with blueberries
chard cabbage celery onions spinach beets radishes eggplant artichokes red peppers rhubarb bananas strawberries grapefruit kumquats clementines lemons star fruit
walnuts almonds quinoa
tall gleaming glass marble buildings teem with laboratories of good
birds soar and dart like so many bees and butterflies in a country garden
great dogs manage cadres of brushed sheep and shimmering horses
people in flowers jewels gowns stroll comfortably
privatepublic ships come into the harbor gracefully

harbor court at sunrise
(in 1984 the city donated land to a billionaire developer to build harbor court on light street)

fully lighted with fires

benjamin franklin butler camps in the warrens under federal hill
each day slowly in full uniform walks to the artillery
fires a shot into the heart of our city
our soldiers die east west southeast southwest
we have not surrendered
have not been destroyed
until we lift overhead our swords
then humbly lay them down
he pummels us like slowly dripping water

urban revelopment at sunrise
(a 1983 a civil rights commission assessment of city economic development recommended greater effort to foster black businesses, more equitable commercial lending, increased city contracting with black businesses, increased access to technical and management training for black community members, more aggressive corporate affirmative action, more relevant job training for unemployed community members, and immediate and concerted action to reduce unemployment—the mayor’s office responded that it was false to assume “that a government like ours bears sole responsibility for producing results”)