it comes in short segments of time

that slip away before it's noticed

an hour of machine noise from

the construction site across the avenue

the wild irrepressible waves

of red-gold maples whisking in the wind

the lives of the innocent and gentle

gunned down on a shabbat morning

the waking of television in a political season

built on slander and innuendo

a motorcycle crash from the hollow

of a mountain road of fracking rigs

the passages of allen ginsberg's sunflower sutra

i reach for this like any desperate soul

to mourn and renew without an audience

is to cry like a human being

--- e b bortz

choices at a border

where people are fleeing poverty and violence

     tear down the walls
they've always been obsolete

we are witnessing an arrival

one of many
there are choices to be made

if your job is that of an armored fence

     drop your weapon
          open your heart

if you're building with steel and razor wire

     stop
and walk away

if you go to worship

leave the church doors unlocked

bring food and water and love

to your neighbor

listen for the voices of conscience

and join in
     if you don't hear any
scream it out yourself

beginning now

you are a witness

--- e b bortz

earth note 628

having fallen off the digital divide

to a place in-between
a touchpad and on-screen keyboard
where every keystroke
is evaluated and executed
with authoritarian precision
by a facsimile of what
hitherto might have been known
as a hardware keyboard
now approximately 17.5 % kaput

and though the mechanics of all this

don't lend itself
to any streams of consciousness
there is something of a gold lining
in the maples across the avenue
turning their backsides into the wind
& flipping off their middle fingers

--- e b bortz

untitled three

the down days make even the up days dark

nothing but halfway emotions

     expected
but never matching expectations
so i look again
to see if something has been missed
like maybe here comes the sun
even if the city is still sleeping
and the constant drizzle
     colder than yesterday

the trail is flooded

in dying leaves
the stir turns me around
in time to see two rain soaked jackets
walking along the curb
with one bible

the gold letters gave it away

--- e b bortz

earth note 627

language of a mangrove

root by root

 

--- e b bortz

earth note 626

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the spokes will find a way

before sunset
before high tide
to lead you to nirvana

before there were maps

all life came out of the sea
the barracuda and jellyfish
held equal status

when the land finally appeared

the coral stood up and declared
there are no walls
to be scaled

if you are

a heartbeat
listen
and then follow

--- e b bortz

earth note 625

a rare yesteryear in the twentieth century

bayside of key west
we hit upon the coldest
january gale force wind
a windbreaker
couldn't hold back
maybe even ice in the rain

paradise ran away fast
without looking back
'til it got a few hundred miles south
past the tropic of cancer

a bicycle frame

can drain the warmth
outta your body
anywhere with a headwind

not a pelican in the open

--- e b bortz

earth note 624

snipe point florida keys 2013

a pod of short-finned pilot whales

died in the shallows
never having a chance
against the too warm waters of the gulf
breaking their will
before finding an escape route
the simplistic answer from the bureaucracy
     'this is just nature'
will not survive the truth
still buried in plastic sand
waiting
for the next red tide

--- e b bortz

earth note 623

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

close your eyes

when you look into the sun
the face is interchangeable
in the spirit world
from human to rattlesnake
there is no transition
when the earth mantle moves
all heads will turn

--- e b bortz

earth note 622

1.

waking up early

and walking at full speed
toward sunrise
the tops of the trees tremble
the orange rust color near the tops
looking like the start
of a ritual
i swear i hear chanting on the ridge

2.

nothing can replace

the orange robes
of a thousand years
too much suffering
to be ignored
the chanting grows
above the traffic

3.

tax dodgers prepare their excuses

separated only by plastic oceans
elites fly first class incognito
their suits threaded
in triangle shirt factory fire sweatshops

4.

when sunrise finally breaks

all becomes familiar
the trees sway and rustle
like they've been
watching all along
the chanting fades into another day
morning shadows make their claim
in the here and now

--- e b bortz

golden shower of the american empire

a falling down drunk has just hit the pavement
tongue in the gutter
another man
dressed for a night on the town
is pissing upstream

--- e b bortz