it comes in short segments of time

that slip away before it's noticed

an hour of machine noise from

the construction site across the avenue

the wild irrepressible waves

of red-gold maples whisking in the wind

the lives of the innocent and gentle

gunned down on a shabbat morning

the waking of television in a political season

built on slander and innuendo

a motorcycle crash from the hollow

of a mountain road of fracking rigs

the passages of allen ginsberg's sunflower sutra

i reach for this like any desperate soul

to mourn and renew without an audience

is to cry like a human being

--- e b bortz

choices at a border

where people are fleeing poverty and violence

     tear down the walls
they've always been obsolete

we are witnessing an arrival

one of many
there are choices to be made

if your job is that of an armored fence

     drop your weapon
          open your heart

if you're building with steel and razor wire

     stop
and walk away

if you go to worship

leave the church doors unlocked

bring food and water and love

to your neighbor

listen for the voices of conscience

and join in
     if you don't hear any
scream it out yourself

beginning now

you are a witness

--- e b bortz

earth note 628

having fallen off the digital divide

to a place in-between
a touchpad and on-screen keyboard
where every keystroke
is evaluated and executed
with authoritarian precision
by a facsimile of what
hitherto might have been known
as a hardware keyboard
now approximately 17.5 % kaput

and though the mechanics of all this

don't lend itself
to any streams of consciousness
there is something of a gold lining
in the maples across the avenue
turning their backsides into the wind
& flipping off their middle fingers

--- e b bortz

untitled three

the down days make even the up days dark

nothing but halfway emotions

     expected
but never matching expectations
so i look again
to see if something has been missed
like maybe here comes the sun
even if the city is still sleeping
and the constant drizzle
     colder than yesterday

the trail is flooded

in dying leaves
the stir turns me around
in time to see two rain soaked jackets
walking along the curb
with one bible

the gold letters gave it away

--- e b bortz

earth note 627

language of a mangrove

root by root

 

--- e b bortz

earth note 626

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the spokes will find a way

before sunset
before high tide
to lead you to nirvana

before there were maps

all life came out of the sea
the barracuda and jellyfish
held equal status

when the land finally appeared

the coral stood up and declared
there are no walls
to be scaled

if you are

a heartbeat
listen
and then follow

--- e b bortz

earth note 625

a rare yesteryear in the twentieth century

bayside of key west
we hit upon the coldest
january gale force wind
a windbreaker
couldn't hold back
maybe even ice in the rain

paradise ran away fast
without looking back
'til it got a few hundred miles south
past the tropic of cancer

a bicycle frame

can drain the warmth
outta your body
anywhere with a headwind

not a pelican in the open

--- e b bortz

earth note 624

snipe point florida keys 2013

a pod of short-finned pilot whales

died in the shallows
never having a chance
against the too warm waters of the gulf
breaking their will
before finding an escape route
the simplistic answer from the bureaucracy
     'this is just nature'
will not survive the truth
still buried in plastic sand
waiting
for the next red tide

--- e b bortz

earth note 623

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

close your eyes

when you look into the sun
the face is interchangeable
in the spirit world
from human to rattlesnake
there is no transition
when the earth mantle moves
all heads will turn

--- e b bortz

earth note 622

1.

waking up early

and walking at full speed
toward sunrise
the tops of the trees tremble
the orange rust color near the tops
looking like the start
of a ritual
i swear i hear chanting on the ridge

2.

nothing can replace

the orange robes
of a thousand years
too much suffering
to be ignored
the chanting grows
above the traffic

3.

tax dodgers prepare their excuses

separated only by plastic oceans
elites fly first class incognito
their suits threaded
in triangle shirt factory fire sweatshops

4.

when sunrise finally breaks

all becomes familiar
the trees sway and rustle
like they've been
watching all along
the chanting fades into another day
morning shadows make their claim
in the here and now

--- e b bortz

golden shower of the american empire

a falling down drunk has just hit the pavement
tongue in the gutter
another man
dressed for a night on the town
is pissing upstream

--- e b bortz

since i don't believe in manifestos

i folded up a blank piece of paper
into eighths and then forgot
where i left it

when i was a kid we concocted our own

invisible ink using milk

this is similar

less the milk

every secret diatribe

should be embedded on
a blank piece of paper

that way

you can start over anytime

--- e b bortz

earth note 621

there's a blue dipper in the clouds moving east
looks like it's filled to the brim
in cold clear seawater
'course that's all an illusion
nothing is clear anymore

the last time we sat on the beach

in daytona
there was a beach full of blankets
beach bikes filled
with daytona winter clothing

the halifax river is rushing its banks

a police car making the rounds
stops and asks the caretaker
if he has seen any bank robbers

this may seem like an odd place

to find camus
but he's there with a poem in his pocket
misread as a bank robber's note

beer cans have overthrown

the recycle bins
on their way to the speedway
frat boys scream in congress
crying in their bier
is now considered martyrdom

 

--- e b bortz

earth note 620

the road from floodwood to silica minnesota 1976

was a land of cattails
wetlands
from memory the sky
stayed gray for weeks
if you got stranded
on the shortcut to duluth
in the winter deep freeze
or summer mosquitos
this being before cellphones
you'd better not pass up a chance
to get help
every house a sanctuary
the snow could go over two feet
before the plows came

by summer

tamarack stood straight and narrow
etching out a dark green line
holding up the horizon
as the land would speak
for all the lonely
played out
going to seed

--- e b bortz

earth note 619

so we think we know

the way to salvation

maybe we're just the wild grass

looking to find new roots

there's magic

in the intuitive

 
a blossom

begins a myth

grows a miracle

--- e b bortz

earth note 618

new jersey 1999

there was and probably still is

a group of feral cats
in the alley near paterson falls
cousins in a lineage
maybe connected by time
to williams
ginsberg
hurricane carter
no this is not a name drop
if you approached any of these cats
they would run
even hiss
orange and tiger-striped
screaming independent
cutting a trail past
overflowing rubbish cans
broken concrete magicians
the mist from the falls
the spirit lives

--- e b bortz

earth note 617

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

rock shards
hard rock candy mountain

sharp as a tinge of iron
in a woody guthrie moan

when the mountainside

gives you the slip
let your boot strings
run like a 12-string

--- e b bortz

earth note 616



isn't every day

a day of atonement
isn't every day
earth day

the mouth of the hillside

is missing teeth
leaves nothing
but loose tongues

know-it-alls garble

the forest colors
rule from the shadows
the bond is broken

pistols running wild

paint and lead
provoking car alarms
smashing an hourglass
before its time

someone just panicked

failed the hairpin curve
two wheels too few

--- e b bortz

toledo stock car death, 1957

the neighbor told the story

like it was one of his kids

kenny nemire leading the pack

died in his ford convertible
on a hot july night

how does a nine-year-old

put away that memory
     his first recognition of death

the night was steaming

walking with mom
down to the soda fountain
for a milkshake

the neighbor came off his porch

greeted us on the sidewalk
with the sad news

only a couple weeks before

he had taken us
to the toledo raceway
where kenny had won
the checkered flag

the neighbor knew kenny
like a son
said he looked like
one of the everly brothers
singing bye-bye love

--- e b bortz

earth note 615

the chrome on the thai bicycle fenders

was starting to pit
heavy moisture & road heat
for the past eight months
     i asked srimorn if she could
keep everything until
who knows when

the crowded street

in surat thani
was always alive
scooters filled with families
down toward the marketplace
defensive bicycling
     survival

in hatyai

we laid on a mat
on your uncle's
cold concrete floor
a wild mix of coolness & heat
our bodies
the equilibrium

--- e b bortz

earth note 614

from dry wash

to rushing river
there were footsteps
     observed
and then followed
what might be called
     original questions
to be answered
falling to ground
hopeless to be heard

--- e b bortz

earth note 613

water rises in a surge
from a route 40 mountaintop
hovering over uniontown
like a hydroplane
waiting to lift you off the pavement

the rain came disguised

then revealed
as cousin of a hurricane
squelching out the summer heat
for maybe its last gasp of the year

the creeks & rivers will flood

like prophecy
the date might change
but keep your hands
steady to the wheel

--- e b bortz

earth note 612

ocean city, maryland

beach volleyball court

cash on the barrelhead
reserved for the seagulls
dishing out september 90 degree burns
just before the approaching hurricane
     always prone to changing direction
though not enough wind yet
to change anybody's opinion
     in congress

there'll be enough motorcycles soon

to take over the streets
settling all scores and disputes
with the roar of an engine

split wood makes a boardwalk weep

after taking a beating
keep your shoes on
the head of a nail
pushes up like a white hot dagger

--- e b bortz