earth note 180

broke in my new sneakers today
walking home from downtown
about three and a half miles uphill
a sunny 60 degrees
even past the cemetery
markers gathering moss from the civil war
and it all probably happened
just about the same
fifty years ago
past my old high school
     i'd walk
and though i didn't run in
to anyone i knew
looking for the old blue bell diner
     couldn't place the spot exactly
with all the vacant lots now
but i still heard the bass man
from the marcels
'cause he used to
     loaf there

& city steps going down
to charles street
or up to buena vista
could use some patchwork
though they probably don't get
the traffic like before
when the streets were crammed
with houses & stores
and a drumbeat from the living
had a way of nudging the restless
into leaving with their dreams
intact

& now i just do my best
pinching myself
in the beauty
of every step
     every mile
     before
     & yet to come

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, April 11, 2012)
(published in earth notes and other poems, Least Bittern Books, 2015)

earth note 179

the antithesis
fell in my lap
like a hot antidote
as the sun threw
its best pitch
directly at my head
distracting the dull throb
like a hoarseness
in the throat
for a moment
leaving only the monotony
of another political season
of bankers & real estate moguls
calmly dressed
reassuring
claim denying insurance manipulators
none of whom
have seen
that the suits will wrinkle
& then burn
off the plastic mannequins
motionless in the window
when the sun
finds clarity
      of purpose

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, April 5, 2012)

i found a new vein

today
never noticed before
this one sucks up
all the impurities never recognized
before
the ego inhibited ones
usually associated with
attributes i'd rather leave alone
     cut out the bullshit already

in the darkness of each dream
sometimes the uncomfortable
truth
finds a way into
the active body

instead of welcoming
a new direction
i find new fears
that will hopefully
not lead to new excuses

so let the day
go forward from here
let's see where
the blood leads

--- e b bortz

earth note 178

for every passing car
up the avenue
early memory
raises itself

a stripped-down pickup football game
     my unexpected speed

a hot summer day in the middle of the ohio river
     swimming back from brunot island
     desperately floating
     not fighting
     the current

the steady rumble
     of a pinsetter's disrespect
     for a ninth grade social studies teacher

an eighth grade history teacher who asks
"are there any jews here"

a half-dozen bee-bee holes in the windows
of franklin ice cream (lee & meadowbrook)

learning how to take a punch
before
learning how to swing back

but it's alright ma
i'll go with
endless love illusions

still

more shark than jet

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Mar 29, 2012)

earth note 177

with the rain this morning
the only brightness
coming thru the trees
were radio tower beacon lights
steady intervals
as if each flash
could predict the future
or monday morning
stock market openings

a continuous fog
bears down on the valley
the beacon is not a lighthouse
the sea is beyond our sight

--- e b bortz

taconite conveyor

north of hibbing minnesota 1977

poured into the
pellet storage bins
which led down
to the railroad cars
pointing toward
the superior wisconsin
iron ore depot
to be loaded
onto the iron ore boats
for buffalo cleveland
hamilton ontario
and more

but the end of the conveyor
was also a beginning
of the wilderness
if you were looking north
poplar tamarack white birch
as far as you could see
some far flung lakes
also
and if your eyes
stayed steady at sunrise
you might see
grey wolf
blue heron for sure
black bear if you were lucky

the pellets flowed continuously
kicking up dust outside
the conveyor shields
a 66% iron composition
like a fixed recipe
for the steel mills
to the south
displacing
natural ore deposits
and thousands
of hungry
underground miners

yet the conveyor spoke
like a shill
the natural world
did its best to cover
its ears
& if there was a bottom line
you always knew
you
were the eternal witness
& thus accountable

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Mar 26, 2012)

earth note 176

the open road
is no longer open
even if our imaginations
insist on it

being prepared for disappointment
is not the same
as folding up
your tent & resigning
to the uniformed paths
dished out to you

don't tell my dog
the grass isn't greener
down the highway
he knows & leaves
bullshit when he hears it

driving west on u.s. 2
to avoid sunrise
in your eyes
seems like a good enough
goal at this point

for every strip mall
forced upon you
there are still
scraps of poems
& wild woods
that demand
attention

move on
when ready

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Mar 24, 2012)

i have a bicycle

that looks for
spiritual fulfillment
usually on
an early spring day
& somehow convinces
me to drop everything
& head down the hill
to where the river trail
still cluttered with some
concrete walls
asking messages
even of forgiveness
for the cruel way
we left
the remains
will haunt us until
written history ceases
or it's outlawed

and unlike twenty years ago
streets & bike lanes & trails
we cried for
are now the domain
of something
further than ourselves

proselytizing animals that we are

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Mar 16, 2012)

earth note 175

a thick fog at four
in the afternoon
seems unusual

it leaves behind
an enigma
an origin of confusion

all of these hills
are old
& obtuse

the end is not near
the beginning
all but forgotten

all events mesh
drift
in their own disorder

in the veil
earth
has no lift

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Mar 14, 2012)

if the naive

would leave their comfort
& go out
& meet the hollow
there is time
still
to breathe taste smell
search the landscape
let the muse bring you
courage

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Mar 11, 2012)

corporate-oc-racy

the debate is safely
within the magic box
a consensus imagined
but not real
for every issue
there are predetermined
firewalls
outer bounds never to be scaled
never to be explored

if you happen to be vying
for a space in a shelter
you don't count

if you take the bus
you don't count

if you refuse the phony
hand of hypocrisy
you will be shunned

if you are aboriginal
you know what to expect

if war is not an answer
there are always lies

if you expose the lies
you'll go to prison

if your water is poisoned
or your dog barks at fracking trucks
you don't count

if you've built a trojan horse
and called it an ark
some will call you a visionary

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews, Mar 6, 2012)

earth note 174

still life frost
on the japanese lemon thread
always yellow lime
deep-rooted enough to flourish
through wind
ice & drought
bamboo encroachment
inalienable resistance
to the abusers
like a conifer
.....like a lifelong love

--- e b bortz

earth note 173

half-dozen crows are bold enough
to take over the turning lane
carefully inside the yellow lines
pecking at what looks like
a heel from a rye bread loaf
.....maybe some loose caraway seeds
sensing cars coming fast
peeking from a hillside half-blind
a dozen wings flap collectively
sprint twenty yards into the trees
then return focused
persistent
dodging again
finally
a sentry calls off the raid
squawks new coordinates
to the north

the wind leads
ice into darkness

--- e b bortz

no dogma prisoners

even if every argument
has genuine logic
there comes a time
when the walls need
to be demolished
the same way
a forest fire
renews growth
floods replenish
& fertilize a field

creating & dissecting hyperbole
is a full-time job
every poet
both prisoner & jailer

--- e b bortz

(published in Embryonic Gurney, Green Panda Press, May 2012)
(published in opednews.com, Feb 23, 2012)

apologies to my ron paul, bolshevik & menshevik friends

a few weeks ago
a guy came over
from a craigs list posting
interested in buying
my old van

before we finished
he opened up
the tailgate of his even older van
& gave me several cds
and other ron paul propaganda
.....some of it close to the mark
before he drove off
with my former van
& his older van
now a small convoy
filled with political tirades
.....some of it close to the mark
bringing back images of those
old eisenstein films
with petrograd revolutionaries
flinging thousands of leaflets
from the back of their trucks
in 1905 and 1917

again
many apologies to my bolshevik friends
but i must admit that i fully defended yinz
in this whole drama
when i responded to the van buyer
who claimed obama was nothing
but a bolshevik
i retorted
no way...obama is a menshevik
all the way

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Feb 20, 2012)

earth note 172

near sunrise
the moon is a perfect thumbnail
a light mix of red & gray clouds
form an arrowhead
to the north
maybe not coincidentally
the crows fly north

songbirds fully awake next door
hide in a barren grape arbor
tune in
their music
skip the morning rush

--- e b bortz

rendezvous

bahia honda

for two days in a row
the dusk
with a red tinge
near the horizon
ocean / gulf bottom
in pale turquoise
near the disconnected foot-bridge
calm
clear and shallow
a dark throbbing trail
out from the shadows
moves
manta ray

--- e b bortz

santa fe train

pulling into
santa fe new mexico
a sunny november noon
a few snapping pictures
passengers stepping down
a banjo & fiddle
playing an unfamiliar
bluegrass tune
puffy white clouds
moving to the rhythm
sandra joyfully transposed
by the marketplace teeming chatter
recycled stalls & organic shoppers

a black dog pushes
his head to my leg
lifts his nose
as if inhaling
a new day

--- e b bortz

earth note 171

a snow drift
finally made
an effort
to form
near the perimeter
of the tree line
short on wind
somewhat haphazard
lazy flakes

who am i to complain

an arctic blast without commitment
might just be
indicative
.....(you pick the metaphor)
to change direction...maybe get lost
waiting for a storm
to break the impasse
.....then find courage

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Feb 15, 2012)

my meter

is giving me a headache
or putting me to sleep
sometimes both

i need a snow drift
to dive into
if i could find one

throw the beats
& bums out
there's a new rhythm

with an irregular stride
run past
every footnote

resisting the obvious
is not
an impromptu exercise

--- e b bortz

vent / piss off everyone

take every big party politician
& evict them for corruption

stick your tongue out
at every blogger
right and left
most are drunk with delusion
you don't need a windbag
to know which way
the wind is blowing

morally exorcise
all police and military
then reduce by 75%

outlaw money & television
& fossil energy
forget the 'debt crisis'

try not to grit your teeth
with your tongue out

--- e b bortz

earth note 170

wind & pines deep breathing
feed on each other
the plane overhead
gets short circuited
in the short arc
of the sun
even clouds lose their way

choices have limits
promises are in-season
money has no exchange

the river inhales
on its own
pushes whitecaps
upstream

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Jan 30, 2012)

earth note 169

dreary & warm
a winter message
like a cry for help

--- e b bortz

earth note 168

frozen hills tasting a thaw
can sometimes fool the songbirds
perched in the remnants
of a rusty gondola car
stranded on the siding

their singing seems random
to an ear still burdened
by the pinging
of a lean & narrow
railroad spike hammer

steel chirping
becomes the acoustic blend
a barge echoes
waiting at the channel
the river will ultimately
decide all propriety

--- e b bortz

the corps

have found a way
to shake inside their iron boots
& still let everyone think
that their benevolence
is in fact
matter-of-fact
with everyone eating
at the trough
diving into a new bag of monsanto hash
spread evenly
egalitarian in fact they say
unless of course your food stamps
have already run out
or you don't have bus fare
or your bones are too cold
to get up from under the covers
since they turned off the heat

and for every iron boot pair
with or without the make-believe
there are 99 barefoot pairs
.....waiting for spring

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Jan 25, 2012)

close your eyes & let me frack you

you'll get paid
piecemeal tax
for the clever milk-no-honey-toastmasters
serving up
in grand jargon illusion
a carbon under-crust
& cloak
for the status seeker nonprofit
eddie bauer backwoods-man-ship
in earth tones

drillers
just mechanical technocrats
even the apologists
in ready daggers
vertical then horizontal
into your bowels
you'll bleed-out
before
you know it

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Jan 21, 2012)

angel baby

1960

rosie & the originals
connected every wavering chord
loose in the body & mind
of a twelve-year-old
just climbing out
from under a school desk
from an air raid drill
     so out of touch

and as the story goes
rosie hamlin was cheated
     for a time
out of her songwriter rights
'cause she wrote the original
as a poem instead of a song

yet still
the poem sings
     like a single voice
          a heart
               endless

--- e b bortz

earth note 167

koh samui, thailand, 1989

the undertow was almost secretive
giving you instant revelation
that it was best to dive in quickly
get beyond it
past the green surf
churning up sand
right before the crash
on high ground
.....a lesson
.....in respect
.....from a stern mother

the fishing boats
came buzzing in for dinner
the beach deserted
the sun screaming for a finish
like there might be some doubt
about tomorrow

even the coconut palms
were picked clean
& when i thought
about their emptiness
i realized that the last ferry was full
& had already left for the mainland

still
tides do melt away
what is left
is the substance
of time
every thought
buried within
.....not fleeting

--- e b bortz

multitudes waiting for facebook's class war

consider this your market research
things are so in the toilet
there'll be hell
fire
& brimstone
awash this election year
all within the safe confines
of your subterranean cyber closet

act now
apps are standing by
that traffic snarl
is not a mirage

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Jan 16, 2012)

first arrest

summer 1964

when i was sixteen
reggie & i crashed
a party over on
howe street
the bohemian part of pittsburgh
then

the four tops
weren't there
but their music was
& a special spirit
you could call it

the police gave no warning
before they barged in
arrested a bunch of us
asking everybody
why
blacks & whites were at
the same party

the paddy wagon ride
stopped at juvenile hall
(was on forbes avenue then in oakland)
and after i was processed in
they pointed to a narrow wooden bench
for me to sleep on until morning
when they'd call my father
i didn't sleep
just laid there wondering
where they took reggie
who was a year older
but still juvenile
& later found out
they jailed him downtown
til morning

after all
we were caught
black
white
& at a 'disorderly' house

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Jan 17, 2012)

earth note 166

on the bus the other day
i heard a hunched over
man
in a very heavy coat
say
he wasn't sure what the future
looked like
today
wasn't what he thought
it would be
yesterday
or a few years ago
he never believed in
an arrival
or deliverance
though the bus driver
did nod
as the front door
lowered
for him to exit

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Jan 11, 2012)

bread crumbs

that haven't yet
fallen to the floor
are well hidden
or scattered
over the table
to the point
of dispersing
the mass
to starvation

on another table
in the outer-burbs
the feast never ends
or even pays
its own freight
bread crumbs
trickle upward
like a steady
bleed

some believe
this is novel

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Jan 8, 2012)

earth note 165

among the scattering
of dead leaves
there are islands of green
even on new year's eve

& even in the clump
of maples
every branch
a fine etched drawing

stands against grey
skies ambiguous
& overcast
not hopeful & not hopeless

it makes no sense
to mull all the possibilities
like a solitary exercise
sophistry ain't necessarily enlightenment

yet
to follow the sun
when it actually rises
might be a beginning

--- e b bortz

(published in Jawbone Open Book, May 4, 2012)
(published in opednews.com, Jan 1, 2012)

earth note 164

khao sok national park, thailand, 1989

heat and downpour
swelter an original rainforest
sweet mist growing
you can taste it
swallowing each peak
one by one
the ultimate inside-out cleanse
keeping perspective
simple
everything rides
on bicycle tires
rough limestone
.....a cloud touching ground

--- e b bortz

earth note 163

a stand of bare black branches
eke out a living
perching crows
shuffle thru frozen pizza
cold rain turns white

--- e b bortz

when oliver high school closes

at the end of the school year
how will the streets & avenues go
that used to be
the skeletal frame
of the whole

charles street
marshall avenue
california & termon & davis avenues
woods run
brighton & columbia places

self-fulfilling politician prophets
have long predicted & facilitated
depopulating & dying
of the component neighborhoods
after all
no one loafs on the stoops anymore
music imposters have invaded & replaced
the marcels and the chantels
yet the continuum
and great grandchildren
of the last great industrial migration
cling on desperate fringes
warhola scrapes along
sorting out
a turquoise front fender of a '55 ford
that used to park during school hours
on island avenue
near the corner store
now closed
near the oily oliver football field
now grass

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Dec 21, 2011)

as the troops come home

we ask ourselves
how will the bodies
be renewed
to refuse another deployment
care for the children
live by the magic
telling each life story
grow the natural within the maze
deconstruct/replace authority constructs
find loving courage
that rests within
.....the meek who touch
.....sand and sea
.....with open hands

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Dec 18, 2011)

on the bus down

to downtown
the forty degree temperature
a good omen
for occupy pittsburgh winterization
in progress
and a robust sun
glaring thru
a child's hand-printed bus window
it was the downer
of knowing that
this sunday morning
had the news of
two more shootings
in my neighborhood
one near the circle k
we stopped at
just saturday morning
dropping blood
as rich & deep & painful
as the deepest
of issues
from the big picture
as vast and as small
as any derivative trader

where every victim needs a name
a chant
a song

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Dec 13, 2011)

earth note 162

deer and canine
hoof & foot prints
frozen forms
a little jagged
into grassy mud

city
life
.....boundaries fall

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Dec 8, 2011)

fossil

death models hide
in the ashes
of mouthpieces
fossilized by their own closed loops
with talk bouncing around
rubber rooms
sliding down sanitized marble halls
from the comfort of one-way doorways
cushioned boardrooms
cocksure no doubt
that the reckoning
can be managed
from the insulated shelters
orbiting every hour
on the hour
it doesn't really matter
who else knows
the scheme
the silos
are all armed
in the shadows
danger is relative
the profit-line
purportedly
guaranteed

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Dec 6, 2011)

earth note 161

as the spirit
becomes gray
like a veneer of coal dust
and the tired broken hills
attempt to regenerate
green
& a lapse of warmth
there are moves beneath
not to be ignored

in each dark day
a most bitter winter

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Nov 28, 2011)

earth note 160

soggy leaves
are a welcome mat
with bare feet

--- e b bortz

navel gaze gets a bad rap...or maybe not

after all
it's the root
of everyone's sorry ass
ask your mom
listen to what
that navel says
it speaks you know
without a script
and if you really want
to be bold
start talking back
to it
you can even speak in tongues
it'll understand
any language
inner communication
is a two-way navel

second thought
maybe it is
the ultimate ego
bad-trip
self-absorption
that buries you
inside embryo mode
like an unwelcome
dependency
you can starve-out
the life juices
making the body & mind
a blob
a reactive pale

so if you slip
into the crater
navel disconnect
moist darkness
dry delusion
remember
there's always the primordial scream

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Nov 20, 2011)

your worth is infinite

and not negotiable
in your hand or breath
a bond
of another
with another
a transcendent link
abstract beyond the frame

let the hypotheses
collapse
in their own prison

a great rumble
from the ocean bed
is your heartbeat

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Nov 17, 2011)

earth note 159

the rain runoff
cuts through the hills
exhumes the history
we've been ignoring

juiced-up broken bottles
disconnected car parts
lonely condoms
a desperate syringe or two

quiet river creeps
swallows without notice

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Nov 14, 2011)

earth note 158

the yellow ones
mix with the yellow lines
on the avenue
but of course
nothing is further from the truth
they have nothing in common

the brown ones
make a covering
that becomes the ground

the red ones shout

a few green ones
and the pines
look upward

a blue sky makes no promises

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Nov 7, 2011)