earth note 603

a switchback
might seem like a long way around
like the one off marshall trail
called kilbuck
in riverview park
where there were once stone masons
building streetcar shelters
along perrysville avenue

today the rain runoff

looks like a small fast creek
still glistening after the storm leaves
long after the trail remembers
where to give you footing
where to turn and twist
inside and through the arms
of the hillside canopy

--- e b bortz

it's never too late

even if it's long past time
for us to carry our poems
to the street
speak it out
in a public space
in everyone's ear
right smack dab
between the marble halls
and the tone-deaf
     power elite ain't no cliche

you shouldn't be imagining the worst

it'll turn in to an ultimate writer block
built around your cerebral cortex
before you know it
turn your head away
     now

stop slamming into the wall

i know the bus schedules

let me know
where & when to meet
the poems will merge
from many hands & mouths
the grass will open
like new found metaphors
swarming to the end of the horizon
     free

--- e b bortz

questions for a hot summer

are we waiting for iran to be bombed

before there's an antiwar march on washington

is the twitter generation ready for the draft

does anyone in the trump house read....farsi

is there a doctor in the house

what is congress waiting for

can i support the green marchers in iran

without approval

is there any way to grow enough flowers

to stuff all the gun barrels

have the holes in your boat been patched

will you carry your neighbor with you

--- e b bortz

we were just fifteen

walking back from our loafing stoops
on columbia place
to her stoop on flocker way

not sure how it happened exactly

but when i brought my clarinet
over to the second-fifth presbyterian church
on brighton road
and placed the sheet music down for
     stranger on the shore
i never thought for a moment
there would be someone
who would sit down next to me
and sight read perfectly
the piano accompaniment

but she did

without hesitating
sweat rolling off my fingertips
her fingers
gentle
bridging the keyboard

--- e b bortz

earth note 602

more than one

generational change
down on river road
from the babushkas
ketchup & pickle plant
to the river trail
bicycles     kayaks    
rowers     runners
the old people still fish
     a few young ones
     push baby carriages

cars with bike racks

fighting with each other
looking for a parking space

the suburbs have shoved

their way into the urban

the condos have pushed out

the pork bellies & cow tongues

the river listens

then moves on
from the auctioneer cadence

--- e b bortz

earth note 601

black clouds filling up

close to dusk
a lone chimney swift calls
before the downpour

--- e b bortz

earth note 600

itasca county minnesota

a few miles up the road

from town
in the middle of a rock pile
and broken glass
someone thinks they have a bead
on bob dylan's dream
even if they never cleaned
creosote out of a wood stove
or saw the inside
of a log-built sauna

there are crappies chasing

shadows they thought
were dragon flies
the great blue heron
takes a final swoop
before the summer thunderstorm
and even out on spider lake
white birch bark becomes your parchment
taking on a whole new meaning

of what it means to write a story

in the middle of a memory
in the middle of a rock pile

--- e b bortz

earth note 599

marshall trail

smooth gray pebbles

small sharp cinders
a few loosely sunken cobblestones
indigenous black topsoil
a mixup like a stew
spread by unnatural selection
crossing over mountain bike tire tracks
where the trail divides and pushes on through
like a reprieve from a heat wave
a large doe
springing to her feet
long leaps across
oak      maple      ash
leaning into a soggy hillside
to catch the sky
deepest blue

--- e b bortz

earth note 598

little colorado river

for every dry wash

on the high desert
there are lost communities
parched bodies
hidden beneath the flame
perceptive beyond explanation
way beyond
the modern sun worshippers
and expensive sandals

the original people

grew squash
made decisions together
knew the seasons
nurtured families
made music
told stories

of the future

--- e b bortz

earth note 597

a tentative breeze whisks tears

up the avenue
their own state of mind
like droplets being saved
     the fireworks are over
yet they haven't really begun
hunger can't be satisfied
by a cup of rainwater
as pure as that may be

--- e b bortz

earth note 596

sparrow drying out

on a wrought iron railing
hummingbird
trickster

--- e b bortz