sustainability – Page 8 – sunrise in a small city

wire song

words in rhythm of armies assembled with spears and shields from rowed sailing ships
feint through vast spaces in atoms near those sitting outside on starry nights
psalms in antiphony of dazzling light decaying shadows in canon
reverberate rising gliding down carved stone and glass
stories in passion aria duet trio ensemble
infuse in wax and waves of radio
buzzing chaotic humanity
planetstrapencoded
voices sounds
explode

point breeze at sunrise — (in 1984 the western union baltimore works on broening parkway at point breeze, where transoceanic cables and other telecommunications components were manufactured, closed)

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”)

drawing out somewhere

cloud pillars etch lines around tired city faces
shadows push away from bright lights
moses uturns
myth hopelessly lost
pouring concrete into river of life
chariots heave gravel and sand
dry waters muddy land divide
children wall around pursuing encircles
sea becomes tarmac
aggregate of souls cast aside
and souls rotting iron in acid rain
flowing eddying promised hatred
some walk on utterly confused
moses, take the free way to egypt
command love and peace

uninterstate at sunrise — (I-170 was cancelled in 1981: I-595 was cancelled in 1983; route 40 continues to spread apart west baltimore)

shadecounter

a sailor returning
holds firm
ninety ways of smelling water
ripping into every meal
aortas veins feeding filtering
nerves ringing in wind
each day a space sealed and stowed
jet propelled through twisting time
on the rim of dim dark implosion
before memory stops

pier 3 at surnise — (the national aquarium opened as the baltimore aquarium in 1981 on pier 3)

so many pretty flowers

why do you animate me
cast me into space and time
from earth
still and lonely
some hands muscle neuron beauty
hold you

former clayworks at sunrise — (the baltimore clayworks was established in 1980 on smith avenue in mount washington)

here and there this and that

facebanging newly opened rose
deep convicted luminous
echoing color
petals brown loam
green blackening sepals leaflitter
dried fruits wingsown gutfermented
earthnectar dispersing shimmering sungrains
ephemeraternal beauty
tinkling symphony in roomsoul
justice came near
stay my love