earth note 740

the buds have soaked in the night

releasing flowers by morning

cardinals sleep in late

maples stand ready and motionless

bloated gray cloud cover moves west to east

dog barks at the rain

--- e b bortz

earth note 739

little colorado riverbed

a dry wash of sand

by summer

the ancients have left a path

--- e b bortz

cold drizzle sunday six days south of may

steady like a couple mourning doves

honest before the wake

puddles and overflowing bird baths shiver

     beyond

the forest is starting to fill in

     no guarantee for the self-righteous

the avenue stays empty

between rain drops

camus would wear a trench coat

turn up his gray collar

the pizza joint on woods run

stays shuttered

acid gray creeps up from the river

cold steel hangs like a sky hook

your tongue sings through the railroad trestle

     rust & all

pundits get ready to cash in their words

the hospital keeps humming

steam for the autoclave

--- e b bortz

earth note 738

so the green buds

are the fresh start

we've been promised

but it's still not clear

if anything new

is taking hold

so i'll keep looking

two more miles

around riverview park

longer if you do the trails

no ifs ands or buts

this is no time to give up

--- e b bortz

smoky hills stuck to your skin

wearing out the eagles greatest hits 
bootleg 25 baht cassette

southern thailand brought out

a peaceful easy feeling by way of jack tempchin

happy to have old desperado do the driving

best of your love

the ocean could swallow you in one breath

if you let your eyes

go with the dream

the trip back from the power plant ends

like it starts each morning

a dusty light crawling up the backstreets

without promises

looking for the next

sunday morning

--- e b bortz

earth note 737

the bicycle trail in moab utah

was a high 90s degree heat

dry as the rock arches

wind blown by endless years

a raft or two on the colorado river

dusty brown like sandstone

no one told them you need

to get past lands end footwear

to touch the wilderness

--- e b bortz

for a fifteen-year-old

the sidewalks on east ohio street sang harmony

unconsciously

for every i wanna hold your hand

that jumped out of the sky

suddenly

rolling thru the radio

right up to the pawn shop

and a fifteen dollar guitar

hanging in the window

trying to find your way thru the chords

your fingers learning to callous before bleeding

growing your nails before they're chewed down

on clanging streetcars

belching stacks

a black horizon

--- e b bortz

plague

i don't think there are too many of us

reading this

who have lived through a plague

the closest thing we might know about

or have heard about

might be the great depression of the 1930s

so let my story begin there

winters in cleveland usually go thru the sub-zero

when nothing moves

& if you're outside you need many layers

to survive frostbite

in the 30s my dad and his buddy fred survived in a grimy old gas station

repairing batteries      selling jumper cables

gasoline of course

fixing radiators and cooling systems 

selling used tires by way of my dad's brother-in-law

those tires usually following a surreptitious route

round-about through a dozen hands

sometimes back to the original owner

and there was no guarantee there would be supper

but when necessary

my dad and his comrades rallied a crowd

along east 105th street to intercede and put a tenant's furniture

back into their apartment

eviction was an act of war

and when the unemployed marched on city hall

nobody threw loaves of bread to the hungry

they were called a mob and that was usually followed

by police nightsticks

no one paid much attention to the down-ticks

or up-ticks of the stock market

this wasn't the real economy

but your next meal

     was

by 1937 the fight against fascism in spain

was raging

     a plague of another kind

my dad put down his tools

bid goodbye to his pal fred & the gas station

and joined the abraham lincoln brigade

to beat back the franco-hitler-mussolini axis

but make no mistake about it

the spanish mountains and deserts

could freeze the blood in your veins

     as red as they might be

leaving you with the heat of a roma blanket

     a vision

     a lifetime song

the plague be damned

--- e b bortz

not sure how it will happen

or who'll give the final wink

quid pro quo

to let the patient die on the scrap heap

     coughing dry

reverse engineered worn-out ventilator

where history ends and the abandoned

look through the last of the rubbish bins

for a mask

or a gown

hidden in the ledgers

of a mar-a-lago walk-in closet

open everything up they say

the cash registers may be nothing

more than rotting paper weights

but the appetite is all that matters

traffic on the avenue is picking up

herd mentality in time for christmas

is enough of a goal

the dog goes to the extreme backyard

just before the drop-off

eyes and nose in motion

a clairvoyant pointer by most definitions

the apocalypse announces itself

at the cinderella ball

but the prince is working a double shift

passing out in the linen closet

--- e b bortz

earth note 736

the sap stopped running long ago

for every hollowed-out maple

there should be a wake

the body will crack and then sing a dirge

this is not a repeat of some fire and brimstone

in the scriptures of the quarantine

there is a path less traveled

but first you must give up your propriety

when stock trading resumes on monday

tell the pit bosses that there is

no safe social distance

only the final bell might save you

sometime after 5pm the news of the day

will get wrapped for cosmic distribution

the internet will scream into the silence

tv anchors will crawl back into their personal caves

a cardinal finds a cold wire in time for spring fever

the sun opens for the canopy

a ray of light

can lead to a thousand footsteps

--- e b bortz

earth note 735

the sparrow on the porch roof

doesn't realize there's a quarantine

nor the buds on the peach tree

take that first step

color all the way to the margins

watch the sun bounce off the page

like there's no tomorrow

--- e b bortz