calm afterstorm

after blasts of yells and blows
burn off with fog and mist
block walls painted light green drip
in halls without windows on copper skies
or with grated windows and crossed shadows
children move and pass as whispers
short and long
plump and lank
pale and brown so beautiful
shining tracks
elfish light
blue black green and orange
body of brothers sisters winding into rope
on a lonesome way thru tripping feet and spilled food
on a whirl spinning around
they row

southern high school at sunrise
(after several days of nasty confrontations and some arrests in 1954, students at newly integrated southern high school on warren avenue somehow persevered)

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)

teamsport

fingers strings steel compress release
balls turn in grace
arc in certainty
bounce in rolling chaos
through portals
past counterstrikes
into destinations
antipathyfree
in run stop pass hold launch strike
force finesse
constitutional policepowerfree
lovely spheres
spinning and flying

druid park from beechwood drive at sunrise
(despite a federal district court finding in 1953 that policy prohibiting interracial basketball, tennis, and golf in city parks was not unconstitutional, city parks were desegregated in 1953—one set of plaintiffs had been prevented from playing tennis together in druid hill park)

oasis

thorny brambles chancewind swept
miles and miles of labyrinth
around pools seenandrumored
magic carpets flyingover
crash in tumblingscratchingskids
stopandfind the painachingsorryguiltymess
loudly contemplate
each footwoundpiercing step

administration building at sunrise
(baltimore polytechnic institute’s pre-engineering program was opened to 16 segregated students in 1952 after petitioning by the naacp and the urban league—poly was then at north avenue and calvert street)

duly executed

bodies corporate perpetuating duration percentum
sheltering rent property public
dwelling not with standing
aggregating mutual covenants
whereof
witness
safety healthy morals

city hall dome at sunrise
(in 1949 over 2000 city residents railed at a city council meeting against unisolated public housing)