cry against it

city surrounding swelters
mortar dissolving into sand
forests invade with worms
growing and burning in season
one great endless vessel
emerges from evaporating rain
words oscillate
but only fiery emptiness
makes peace

cemetary with playground at sunrise
(jonah house was established in west baltimore in 1973 and is now resourced on moreland avenue)

not building one-piece

working in boilers belts furnaces smelters stampers
radical atoms
sweating out working through
until electricity whines
grunching louder minute by minute days weeks months
working where
why know-why
surfacing over deepwater and flats sounding mosquito-like
around missing floating city
fishing away compression pain
mind access
radio signals eternity

warehouse parking lot at sunrise
(the american standard plumbing manufacturing plant in canton closed in 1972)

anisotropy

herstory swirls spirals twists
plasma oscillating
restoring force
dark energy matter

free clinic at sunrise
(the womens union formed in 1972, resourced from the peoples free medical clinic on greenmount avenue and partly inspired by women: a journal of liberation)

re dei cavoli

i approach one hundred years
every breath aching deathfear
childhood voices roomshadows
uncompleted tasks waft and drip
raining pain with phantom.
I think of one gold banana on a mountain of green on pubbys truck
childlegs hoist and clamor
thrillingest fruit ever
ecstasy sweat satiate blood sweet oppression
sunsaliva oceanrainteeth fleshstomach
pubby screams testa di cavoli i flee
thieving
finally punished with burr in toe
pubbys evening silence.
or am I punished
or do millions die brutally
irrigare le banana

south locust point at sunrise
(in 1970 the port authority purchased south locust point facilities owned by b&o and operated by the united fruit company)

potash and fishmeal

mask wearers sweat in worsening cargo warehouse
taste feel smell hear see wealth
blowing to least resistance
brace lift carry turn choke
on fertilizer fantasy

ILA local office at sunrise
(two segregated international longshoremens association locals were forced by the federal government to merge in 1970)

beating brow

blue painted steel after night sky
gravity focused
dull brown brick in pink light
sharing load
orange stripes
tertiary painting
last of white street light
stored electrons
fundamental simple
means dignity justice voice

steel bridge at sunrise
(members of the welfare rights coalition camped out at department of social service headquarters in 1969 until the agency agreed to responsibly meet demands addressing basic human rights)

day without

thou shalt not believe in
victory dollar
victory vote
winning love
detached voice
common enemy
single-sourced fact
warstrategem
labelism
natural state nationarchy
killing

hospital at sunrise
(in 1969 local 1199 organized hospital and nursing home workers and negotiated for decent wages, good working conditions, job security, respect, and dignity with johns hopkins)

clean this shit up

digging roots
metabolorderhotcerealfreshfruit
portable midday
bones bagged extraction
distraction
arrests incarceration
first waves gathering storm
concessionsjobs materielleopiomanicsomuchhorseshit
know the stalking patience
prey
slowly devour predator
salivablood love chewedorgan swalllowingpeace
understandingincising

eager street at dawn
(the baltimore branch of the black panther party started working out of east eager street in 1968)