impatience

has always led me

to throw the words down in a hurry

no expectations

refugees gathering up their families

heading toward the boats and rafts

against all odds     with only courage

poets sheltering infants at standing rock

in a lineage of endless canyons and prairies

a vision that can't wait

words eked out

from a mother's breast

and a river

to cleanse us all

--- e b bortz

earth note 700

surat thani to phuket, 1989

the bus ride for an exit visa

went right thru a rainforest

water droplets hanging

in transition

straining then letting loose

i slide the window open

before the horizon goes orange

--- e b bortz

walking with your back straight

is a segue out of the drizzle

it should all breakup by noon

     the rain that is

and then we'll be that much closer

to september

the month of decay & renewal

canada geese are stirring

     filling the void

wings take on poetry

like diminishing warm air currents

the avenue traffic is unusually loud today

school buses determined

with new drivers

a dove puffs up on the wire

starts a low cooing

blends in with raindrops on the roof

the drizzle may go on til tomorrow

--- e b bortz

earth note 699

a great pittsburgh ride

     circa 1993

is still waiting for the sun to come out

the colors fade faster

than the legs spin

even with a fitness storefront

in every mall or maul

all inclusive

like a 'healthcare package'

when i rode my bicycle to junior high

some of the kids laughed at me

& said i needed to ditch it

for a better one

of course this was only 1960

long before the eco bicycle awakening

     brought me clipless pedals

this may get me a score of unwanted

online advertising but i definitely

believe in upgrading to a more

supportive and comfortable

prostate neutral

     saddle

that view in your helmet mirror

is not a look back

but forward

--- e b bortz

earth note 698

the head of the ohio river

has been hung out to dry

rolling its eyes     origin weeping

as the commentators come on

gushing about how many jobs

will be supplied by a petrochemical cracker box

     of poison     and plastic

just a few miles downstream

after all

we need plastic

like the country needs a billion more

credit cards

as royal dutch shell gas industry commands it

every bought & paid for politician

opens their mouth

closes their eyes

--- e b bortz

blue song, rev 2

pittsburgh 1969

we walked a few miles before
the summer night cloud burst
soaked us through

somehow we knew
k and g would never
hold together

him back from nam
never settled inside
demons would win

and when the incline
finally made it
to mount washington

we kissed the skyline
in all the haze
a thousand lights nothing but melting candles

and swore to meet
in ten or fifty years
what's real lives on

there comes a beat
only the drum
knows

hands forget
what the heart
remembers

and at dawn
no change
joy-tears find rainbows eventually

the incline makes another round
lights dim
we gather the morning

epilogue:

this fell somewhere between

woodstock and the death of jack kerouac

the rain still washes the body of everything

except the original sins...we live with them

like they were cousins in a long line of ancestry

     the rivers still cry out in the downstream

someone might say

how can there be any tears left

--- e b bortz

the sky barely lets in first light...keep the planes grounded

grudgingly

even the maples are drab green

hong kong youth turning their soft bodies

against assault weapons & armored personnel carriers

     this is real steel

post-post-post cultural revolution

not something out of a backyard furnace

businessmen take your gadgets home

to the gig economy

find a cargo ship to stow away with

--- e b bortz

the earthworms are surfacing

i don't need to look under every rock

it's all self-evident

that the body speaks for itself

you don't need to walk every hollow

to know that the hillsides are slipping

the fog takes days to lift

and then of course that isn't the whole picture

i used to stand at the top of the city steps

and look as far west as possible

breaking out of the box takes many attempts

you find yourself at the side of a highway

looking for a route that always seems to escape you

when the fall rains come

denim is your only covering

the rain comes down gray

coal barges spit what's left overboard

you wanna grab what's left of a blue sky

     walk with your back straight

--- e b bortz

earth note 697

the forest broke the headwind

better than a line of bicycles

even ohio hickories

logged out decades before

wedged their remainders

touching aboriginal mounds

mounds still standing proud

refusing to roll over forgotten

gathering the morning sun

getting under the skin

between the heartbeats

where there's nowhere to hide

--- e b bortz

earth note 696

on the back ridge

a woodpecker found

rhythm

sound meets

a lost soul

hollow is a message

--- e b bortz

earth note 695

after the hurricane

there was a line of inverted mangrove

stretching out like a barrier island against the highway

uprooted in the storm

dying like on a spiral cross

reaching for the sky

--- e b bortz

earth note 694

when the paper finally unravels

the dogma texts

will take on new forms

grounded and nurtured in dark loam

like sunflower fields

migratory birds

calling out the believers and nonbelievers

     to think

     anew

let the rotting go forward

a new day always begins

like darkness

leave your steel-toed boots behind

toughen your flesh soles

footsteps bare

but the path is clear

--- e b bortz