sunrise in a small city

map cough and cover

blue veins on paper
oxygenating
crisscrossing
connecting
oiled tar concrete on green hills silver water
carbonating
separating
momentumous

interchange at sunrise — (interstate 95 between baltimore and dc opened in 1971)

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)

your positive side

upsurging communal pride
culturepleasure possibilitinomicnomicnomic
neighborhood queued carousel
beer beef gently rhythmic sailing beasts
perfume finishing apple with roasted shell
auburn hair soft curling in electric fingers
ah move like that

foutain sculpture at sunrise — (the first city fair was celebrated at charles center in 1970—the last outside memorial stadium in 1991)

youth hostility

in a drying swirling heating up wind
sow tender pale anemones in bands
mace spritzed
mourning lost should not have been

flower bed at sunrise — (the 1970 flower mart in mount vernon square was decorated with fisticuffs and rioting police)

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)

modernist capital

wait about our own horizon for an early morning bus
heart and lungs laboring humid heat
slowly fading from outside
abyss center
swirl
forgotten to ourselves

one charles center at sunrise — (most of charles center was completed between 1962 and 1969)

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)

free agnew confrontation

random bestial power coursing
bunches of quakers praying
so many reminders
cars careening
in the same cell suffering
most solitary sadnesses
tiny shards in strong wind
bodies along to get it wrong
if only a law is just life celebration

maryland avenue at sunrise — (the baltimore defense committee, operating out of 2525 maryland avenue, organized several days of nationally prominent anti-war and social justice protests in 1968 during the trial of the catonsville 9)