radio message to silk stockings

large shattering glass windows
rage coming up the road
coursing action
shockwaves
human lithosphere elastic
subsiding in eerie melody of alarms
then sunlit bayonets
faultlines recharging

gay street at sunrise
(several days of unrest resulting in twelve million dollars of property damage in 1968 first started in the four hundred block of gay street two days after martin luther king jr. was murdered)

drylands in rainfall

all who wish walk here
listen and say
arms lock sweat lift
path unseen waiting earth
touch stones smell tubers watch burrows and webs
hail paths crossing
continuing together

homes at sunrise
(in 1967 bonnie ellis, shirley pryor, and lousie alston helped establish the lafayette-douglass food buying club)

blood writing

black and white orchid red clay
grey lichen textured canvass
green sword fern cooled brown lava
dappled seabird dropping shit
dharma brothers stone building
mister clean perfume war clerks
knife to tongue to pen to pray
worthy suffering plain peace

custom house at sunrise
(phillip Berrigan, tom lewis, david eberhardt, and james mengel poured their blood, cut with chicken blood, on six hundred draft files at the city central draft office in the custom house on gay street in 1967)

who may die

live still love calling
under infernocloud mushrooming miles
cast out away in steel ropes
withering shrinking in flamestorm
abandoned inside ringing glimmering wandering fire
uncrossed
wouldbegod casts and disappears
inkgreenblack oily smoke
i suppose a heavy metal bird should scream

shipping terminal at sunrise
(in 1965 a nine alarm oil fire threatened residents of wagners point who struggled on under criminal neglect by the city until the late 1990s)

rest next time

disconnected smallstreet
pigment pools punctured tears
sprinting stopping condemnation caucus
chimney sky-rockets rain mushroomthistle
tree arms temperfold
pollenpepper sneezes beat
seepingpipe molassess well
playlot furroweed
seawash lessening
faster walking risingreen souptide
kings poorman standing out of sight
summer days

small street at sunrise
(in 1964 vernon leopold was shot and killed in front of his mother’s house on parrish street by a policeman who had been drinking in a bar around the corner)

nightboat

drinking dining
seeing ships boats shoreline
southeast onto late afternoon riversea
sun slowly farther behind
lower then forgotten
steamer slipping into evening south
through nursing sharks under homebound heron
night sinking into past
so far
a speck of light
explodes all
and rainforest drips unsilent

valley and pigs

needle into bloodstream
congestive heart
escaping maelstrom of nothing.
or dews gather dreams
dancing labor streaming
down to world
falling out to stars
resting in wind and reeds
soulharbor fecundcity
estuary unlocked corridor unalchemy
of pulsing breathing green brown black and blue
just as nothing

expressway at sunrise
(the jones falls expressway opened from biddle street to the beltway in 1962)

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)

blessing

shining
sunny plenty
magic circling
naked unafraid walking beauty
clamor crying morning
red is blood
ringing laughter

mondawmin mall at sunrise
(mondawmin mall, between gwynns falls parkway and tioga parkway and reisterstown road and monroe street, opened in 1956, with some stores serving only white customers)

hobby farms

summers in lyndhurst
bundles of hay and rights
hardwood and natural capital
wild sunflowers crows
walk on sparkle of water
live upon land everlasting
roam over josephs horses
sliced bread and scattered crumbs

roekby road at sunrise
(the last keelty rowhouse built in the city was erected in 1954 in edmondson village)