thai heat comes to pittsburgh

with the dedication of dripping water droplets

trees in the canopy bow in reverence

murky rivers take their turn

a welder's arc at minimum wage

from a darkened garage

oily skin takes in all the grit

then screams for a cold shower

a jackhammer labors up the avenue

there's no beauty in the work-a-day world

the vans carry the immobile to the hospital

coal mine subsidence sinks another hillside

and yet the summer

has not yet begun

--- e b bortz 

maybe i'm not well read

or i'm looking in the wrong places

but where is our camus

our new generational someone

standing against the cryptocurrency suits & military brass

with nothing but naked intellect

methodically exposing false prophet politicians

their executioner noose platforms & pipelines

     call it carbon blinding if you want

but the blood is real

awash in every river

'til you reach a dustbowl

camus knew the underground

his blood the ink on the paper

blowing up the lies of the third reich

another thousand-year empire delusion

where ghettos and gas chambers intersect

and ashes never go cold

the clear cuts have made way

for the barbed wire borders

concrete & asphalt facsimiles

as far as the eye can see

but then there's camus

here to walk every last hollow

inside a notebook and scribbled truths

--- e b bortz

earth note 801

weigela java red

wakes up suddenly

a month before the summer solstice

wrapping itself up in

white pine austere

there's more than one way

to subvert the paradigm

--- e b bortz

earth note 800

fruit beginning to show a fuzz

drooping weeping peach tree

rust red losing some color

packing just one carry-on

a steel rail bowl

singing alone

westbound

--- e b bortz

bedouin

the original people of the desert

before slingshots

documents

crusader swords

messiahs and messiah complexes

where skin meets sand and rock

and tears

when the dead sea was pure

no one walked on kinneret

camels sleepwalk as the sun sets

through unfounded claims

of ownership

all that needs to be said is

let one life open for another

when you find water

feed the animals first

leave enough for the next traveler

those carrying the burden

are the righteous

--- e b bortz

grinnell street key west

a few years before now

is the shortcut toward

harpoon harry's

eventually you need to step

out of the darkness

the exposed tree roots

a hundred years growing

through hurricanes and floods

leafy overhangs

crowd your sweaty palms

opening hands in a black sky

to the cemetery

like iron gates and headstones

locked above ground

for the poets

and mandolins

--- e b bortz 

earth note 799

the coldest rain

came in may

leaving a bed of loose pine needles

as witness

the nutrients bleached out

a trio of white pine

leading toward the valley

the road out of purgatory

is just a cold river

if you feel the pinch

you know you're still breathing

somewhere in between

beatitude practice

and a remembrance of youth

finally breaking free

walking 'til the soles become

endless practicing souls that have

nothing in common 'cept

their ability to find

or define

your purpose

--- e b bortz 

earth note 798

steady rain drumming

trees with their mouths open

roots through the underground

to stop the pipelines

you need that internal rhythm

like a heartbeat

like a storm

--- e b bortz