earth note 380

little torch key, florida

they rose up since last year

migrating from the next key over
you'd have thought
that the prehistoric calendar
had gone awry
and what was clearly extinction
had rolled right into evolution
my biology admittedly more shallow
than the nearest mangrove root
but every one of those green or brown tails
scurrying across the road
for the first sun in a week
had my bicycle wheels swerving
out of the lump in my throat
& looking up from the wild
where our gazes met
     iguana finds refuge

--- e b bortz

 

earth note 379

the road that leads
to highway one
is paved now
light droppings
from soaring turkey buzzards
do their best
to leave their marks

in the distance

there's a sound
of a helicopter
on a training mission
or surveillance

but the wind is strong

fronds brush and hiss    
     fear fades

--- e b bortz

 

ask any writer

about writer's block
and it might just bring you
a twisted face
or no response
like an embarrassing
round of constipation

and when it comes to poets

it really goes downhill
where the deepest doldrums
are reserved
for the immortal
     like poe
     sylvia plath
and too many more to mention
     the last century is manic
     in its darkness

open the windows and try

to gather up those anemic
bands of sunlight
take it in and
it'll all pass
in this life
or at least
in the next

--- e b bortz
 

earth note 378

high tide 4:44 am

you can only shit & eat
in the same place for so long
once the fracking chemicals
start showing up in your veins
you'll know the canaries & pelicans
were right

the one thing the president

failed to mention when he saw
fish swimming in the streets of miami
was that you shouldn't
be eating the fish

the fools in tallahassee have actually said

they want to frack the everglades
yeah      the wetland of all wetlands
regulation is just a code word
for corporate capitulation
     just ban it damn it

of course what use to be lowlands

might be an underwater key tomorrow
when it feels like rain clouds colliding
with high tide
you might want
to sleep in your life jacket
& hazmat suit

the folks who should know better

seem distracted by a hundred other things
even a slogan like
there is no planet B
is too weak too late

looking to the gators to save us

--- e b bortz

earth note 377

a flock of ibis
white plus one brown one
graceful curved beaks
busy on a front yard
going about their day's
work      is not the objective
     nor should it be

the chickens are drinking

in the parking lot
of the liquor store
you might be thinking
it's the rain
     but you might be wrong

--- e b bortz

earth note 376

pacet channel, florida keys

sun direct & steady

even as the breeze went limp
& a few rain clouds moved in
     dropping a quarter inch
     just west of the seven mile bridge

ocean      gulf      little money key

mostly clear & quiet
a fishing rod shakes with impatience
looking to cast anew

every pelican seems to be hiding

--- e b bortz

earth note 375

morning high tide
was ambitious
     the sand pile
     across the road
     doesn't reach the moon

--- e b bortz

 

earth note 374

what looks like
a coming apart
is as close to a natural process
as anything in nature

the powerful exert

& beat their meat
like a conqueror
     their words recycled & not important

if you gaze the treeline

what is misnamed
     weak
is in fact an embryo

long-distance snow geese 

in the voices of refugees
a river current
finding its way from the origin

--- e b bortz

earth note 373

atlantis blew in like a virus
like it had somewhere to go

the gnats are biting

like they're on their death bed

false advertising & political campaigns

can barf up the unexpected

if there's a will

it would be good to know yah

i guess this is seasonable

hyperbole     what goes in must come out

take a couple aspirin

& call your proctologist in the morning
(kudos to daniel thompson)

--- e b bortz

 

earth note 372

hollywood, florida

the moon can't be trivialized

to fractions
like last night's seven/eighths
or maybe it was five/sixths

it was bright enough

to differentiate the recycling
from the rubbish cans
though the puddles in the alley
needed galoshes
     who even uses that word now
     being from pittsburgh
          is enough of a reason

strange times indeed

keeping everyone off-balance
     you can tell by their driving habits
like hydroplaning
& continuous braking
and for every new-old construction site
there's another flashing emergency vehicle
about to be deployed
     you take your life seriously
     as a rear view mirror

is that eighteen wheeler
closer or further than it appears

even a full moon

has its unexpected detractors
     still
what hides in the clouds
can be whimsically left
as a secret

--- e b bortz

earth note 371

hollywood, florida

a woodpecker

in the tropics
sifting through
the fronds
fire ants
run for cover
     there will come a time
     when peace will prevail

a drawbridge creaks

another sequence
just after the bicycles
make their way

is it really ocean sand

or just an imposter
to these parts
     does it really matter
     will the pelicans complain

will it keep the tourists away

--- e b bortz

earth note 370

the yucca plant
has its own defenses
sharpened through millennia

the earth

& its cumulative knowledge
answers to no one

there's no such thing

as an invasive species
walls are not the answer

what has been misnamed

a desert
will grow & bend with time

--- e b bortz

earth note 369

pinging on a tin roof
in short intervals
is some kind
of internal song
that awakens
but is impossible
to understand

when the rain turns cold

the northeast will speak
in tongues
& you'll wonder
how long it's been that way
or how long you'll
keep listening

--- e b bortz

 

call it a convergence

or focus
there are loose ends
like scattered range grass
that come together
without being noticed

the subtle

are not voiceless

no commodities

to be exchanged
     mattresses
     will sleep on their euros
the thousand dollar suit
will never notice
in its stupor

--- e b bortz

there's no fooling anyone

with a phony quiet
     at this instant
calm & autumn leaves are only
on a park trail

but go back a few days

& that's when
two people
were gunned down
a few blocks from
     here
in front of the high school
i graduated from
49 years ago

no teenage scuffle

like it used to be

the season has changed

start looking deeper
the forest can only weep
so long

--- e b bortz

 

earth note 368

a valley with empty hardwoods
lies ahead

the river moves

north then south

never forgetting

a contour as a map

interdependency

requires no human interface

a red leaf

rises on the wind

--- e b bortz

 

gangrene is the new antidote for the body politic

if the patients die
bury them quickly in unmarked graves
endless war is the new peace
when in doubt
     repeat
     no signature required
     you've signed by default
     add military music
     turn in the slackers
when you find the cave
proceed cautiously
in the 14th year
or sometime thereafter
the rock crevice
will lead to light
but just in case
     let the drone go first

--- e b bortz

1968 pittsburgh

walking down
the steepest part
of buena vista street
cobblestones
slick with a thin film
from rain
she said we need to talk
stopping
at the broken city steps
     a map that had become
     an outline of my being
she said
you aren't serious yet
about your life
i need to move on
she said
with a quiet maturity
i guess i wasn't ready for

at nineteen

i felt as old
as the paris commune
thinking this pain
was just a part
of what the future
would lead to

there was still

a meeting to organize
a decision to make about a draft card
rent to pay
the haze below the city steps
reluctantly spread out
toward the rivers
as true and as unexpected
as this instant in time

the way forward from here

was about 4am getups
to make it to the laborers
daily hiring hall
the dirtiest & discarded jobs
     the prize
(i might still be paying for)

but from illusion

there can come
thousands of small steps
     & without a calendar or astronomy
new seasons
can barge right in
& transform
every living image
memory
the only tool
needed
to keep
a vision

--- e b bortz

earth note 367

in between the last flood
and the drought
there was a glimmer
of a bumper crop
     of something
enough to fill
the silos of the one-percent
but not enough to meet
the hunger of four million refugees

there's no dilemma here

and it really doesn't take
a lot of words
     the corn gets picked
     the stalks are cut down
     with the precision
     of opulent machinery
every shareholder looks
like a quiet banker
carefully stepping through
the rows
so as not to jinx
the monday morning stock market

the true cost of food & oil

& the whole carbon family
& their genetically modified cousins
have been relegated
to a future
     someone else
splurge today
hoard tomorrow
repeat
repeat as necessary

the crows are at it again

never giving up
a mixed metaphor
squawking through the cemetery
like a sun
bright enough
to make shadows

--- e b bortz

earth note 366

keep searching
for wildness
remember each tree is untamed
and a potential participant
     from a mountain
there is limitless solitude
if ready to listen

there are bodies & flora

willing to take a stand
without social relationship
prerequisites
all the theory in the universe
will not save us
from ourselves

the fog was damp

but lifted quickly
     this morning

--- e b bortz

earth note 365

coming down
from the western rockies
onto the plains
of eastern colorado & kansas
is like a sunflower
making full bloom
& vast
on out
to the fragile edge
where the sky curves
with an arc
from every side
& a tree stands fast
for miles
on a solo stage 

--- e b bortz

earth note 364

drizzle makes a poet envious
the cadence is subtle
it'll tap your shoulder
going directly to your heart
you'll get cold
trying to figure out
the difference between
a dark afternoon
and a lament
you've heard before

--- e b bortz

with october approaching

there comes a decision
standing equidistant
on the stairwell
between maximum & minimum emotion
     which way to go
what should be taken from autumn
     what should be let go of

i've been told

there are no recurring themes
a story leaves out details
from before
that you'll never notice
and you'll adjust to them
like a missing character
or a forgotten name

it's not enough to dwell

in the change of season
there are transitions
so quiet
that what touches you
is complete
though sometimes seen
as less
than whole

--- e b bortz

better to remain anonymous

sitting with a ten-year-old minivan
recharging
from dead
this morning
nothing to do
'cept wait it out

reading through an online nytimes version

of nostalgia
for late 70s new york city
     how could they fail to mention basquiat
          revolutionary gospel that is
     doesn't usually make it into
     self-absorbed congratulatory circles
(o.k. i understand now)

like poetic milquetoast 

running off

to another workshop
some still faking the pain & poverty of those days
presenting the in-crowd as
a red badge of courage
or was it all
just another cliquish andy w production
repetitions co-opted
constructed
     and carefully
     only skin deep

(o.k. i understand now)

--- e b bortz

 

not much long after the leaves change

free-falling to their deaths
     there won't be any excuses left
for not leaving every pennsylvania-west virginia
coal hollowed road
& grit hill
hoping to hide
from another season
of dark high noons
     fresh wind weakened
     by the rattle of coal trains & half-burned diesel trucks
every last one of those tongues
snarling apologetic superpaks
always trying to sell you
     another load

we'll take our lesser evil

gouging gasoline price
& head towards the caribbean
even though there are
no perfect sunsets

--- e b bortz

 

from a raft a first step

a backpack
finds the shore
of europe
leaving western guns to ultimately rust
in the sand
     (along with firewater      smallpox    
     cluster bombs      depleted uranium)

children rest upon a generation's shoulders

their smiles yet to come
millions praise
your bare
courage

--- e b bortz

 

earth note 363

a train of coal cars
squealing over the river
signaling an end to summer
with no patience
for a better way

a dove on the wire

still
in meditation

--- e b bortz

 

earth note 362

a trail with shoulders
still soft from the rain
     a dozen footprints
     split off on their own

--- e b bortz

 

earth note 361

 

cawker city, kansas

the great plains

all-consuming
rolling right up to main street
& an art gallery & antique store
filled to the brim
always saying it's open
which i guess it is
in a figurative sense
as open as the prairie 
as the sunflower & wheat fields
are open
open and empty
as the only road
passing through

your eyes will never

bring the horizon
into absolute focus
it will hesitate on the edge
before fading
     leaving your brow
     damp with questions    

---e b bortz

earth note 360

from the mesa grande
the valley floor
emits a dusty bottom
almost effervescent
& the bodies & cars
scramble from their hives
without purpose
sun providing no clarity
just a mix of granules
& out-of-sync energy

when dusk comes

the forest finds the ridge
& goes into hiding

--- e b bortz

the long walk

from budapest to austria & germany
is only the beginning
the road goes on
sleepwalking 
like a melancholy roma song
prodding a response
that can only be hoped for
stepping into
those shoes
     you will dare
     to be human    

--- e b bortz

earth note 359

just another weekday morning
cars rushing down the avenue
wrapped around their coffee cups
tied up in heat & humidity & time clocks
striking down in unison
sweat dripping off the trees
likes to think
it's a greenhouse
when in fact
the insides
are all but
withering

--- e b bortz