impatience

has always led me

to throw the words down in a hurry

no expectations

refugees gathering up their families

heading toward the boats and rafts

against all odds     with only courage

poets sheltering infants at standing rock

in a lineage of endless canyons and prairies

a vision that can't wait

words eked out

from a mother's breast

and a river

to cleanse us all

--- e b bortz

earth note 700

surat thani to phuket, 1989

the bus ride for an exit visa

went right thru a rainforest

water droplets hanging

in transition

straining then letting loose

i slide the window open

before the horizon goes orange

--- e b bortz

walking with your back straight

is a segue out of the drizzle

it should all breakup by noon

     the rain that is

and then we'll be that much closer

to september

the month of decay & renewal

canada geese are stirring

     filling the void

wings take on poetry

like diminishing warm air currents

the avenue traffic is unusually loud today

school buses determined

with new drivers

a dove puffs up on the wire

starts a low cooing

blends in with raindrops on the roof

the drizzle may go on til tomorrow

--- e b bortz

earth note 699

a great pittsburgh ride

     circa 1993

is still waiting for the sun to come out

the colors fade faster

than the legs spin

even with a fitness storefront

in every mall or maul

all inclusive

like a 'healthcare package'

when i rode my bicycle to junior high

some of the kids laughed at me

& said i needed to ditch it

for a better one

of course this was only 1960

long before the eco bicycle awakening

     brought me clipless pedals

this may get me a score of unwanted

online advertising but i definitely

believe in upgrading to a more

supportive and comfortable

prostate neutral

     saddle

that view in your helmet mirror

is not a look back

but forward

--- e b bortz

earth note 698

the head of the ohio river

has been hung out to dry

rolling its eyes     origin weeping

as the commentators come on

gushing about how many jobs

will be supplied by a petrochemical cracker box

     of poison     and plastic

just a few miles downstream

after all

we need plastic

like the country needs a billion more

credit cards

as royal dutch shell gas industry commands it

every bought & paid for politician

opens their mouth

closes their eyes

--- e b bortz

blue song, rev 2

pittsburgh 1969

we walked a few miles before
the summer night cloud burst
soaked us through

somehow we knew
k and g would never
hold together

him back from nam
never settled inside
demons would win

and when the incline
finally made it
to mount washington

we kissed the skyline
in all the haze
a thousand lights nothing but melting candles

and swore to meet
in ten or fifty years
what's real lives on

there comes a beat
only the drum
knows

hands forget
what the heart
remembers

and at dawn
no change
joy-tears find rainbows eventually

the incline makes another round
lights dim
we gather the morning

epilogue:

this fell somewhere between

woodstock and the death of jack kerouac

the rain still washes the body of everything

except the original sins...we live with them

like they were cousins in a long line of ancestry

     the rivers still cry out in the downstream

someone might say

how can there be any tears left

--- e b bortz

the sky barely lets in first light...keep the planes grounded

grudgingly

even the maples are drab green

hong kong youth turning their soft bodies

against assault weapons & armored personnel carriers

     this is real steel

post-post-post cultural revolution

not something out of a backyard furnace

businessmen take your gadgets home

to the gig economy

find a cargo ship to stow away with

--- e b bortz

the earthworms are surfacing

i don't need to look under every rock

it's all self-evident

that the body speaks for itself

you don't need to walk every hollow

to know that the hillsides are slipping

the fog takes days to lift

and then of course that isn't the whole picture

i used to stand at the top of the city steps

and look as far west as possible

breaking out of the box takes many attempts

you find yourself at the side of a highway

looking for a route that always seems to escape you

when the fall rains come

denim is your only covering

the rain comes down gray

coal barges spit what's left overboard

you wanna grab what's left of a blue sky

     walk with your back straight

--- e b bortz

earth note 697

the forest broke the headwind

better than a line of bicycles

even ohio hickories

logged out decades before

wedged their remainders

touching aboriginal mounds

mounds still standing proud

refusing to roll over forgotten

gathering the morning sun

getting under the skin

between the heartbeats

where there's nowhere to hide

--- e b bortz

earth note 696

on the back ridge

a woodpecker found

rhythm

sound meets

a lost soul

hollow is a message

--- e b bortz

earth note 695

after the hurricane

there was a line of inverted mangrove

stretching out like a barrier island against the highway

uprooted in the storm

dying like on a spiral cross

reaching for the sky

--- e b bortz

earth note 694

when the paper finally unravels

the dogma texts

will take on new forms

grounded and nurtured in dark loam

like sunflower fields

migratory birds

calling out the believers and nonbelievers

     to think

     anew

let the rotting go forward

a new day always begins

like darkness

leave your steel-toed boots behind

toughen your flesh soles

footsteps bare

but the path is clear

--- e b bortz

earth note 693

higgs beach smathers beach key west

the coral is still up against the wall

the african cemetery mourns sunrise to sunset

aids memorial grows new bricks

a bicycle drops two hundred dollar sunglasses

friday artists open their booths with bluegrass

dog park liberators run an underground railroad

happy hour drunks are happy to forget what happened yesterday

a guy named al still runs a taxi service

by new years eve there will be a premium on high heeled sneakers

a cruise ship is flooding duval street with fake currency

every convertible rental comes with a barf bag

the people who work at the library deserve a big raise

ditto for the people at the salvation army thrift store

another street musician another poet finds a home

--- e b bortz

table for two no waiting

beside a red bird house

where the legs are still rigid

forged in the crucible

a sanctuary

like barcelona

that my father spoke

in whispers about

there's enough shade to give us cover

--- e b bortz

only gray

i've tried but failed

to explain it

in black and white

very likely

there will be hell to pay

next year

our hands and hearts are open

but the words on the banner

bleed obsolete or confusion

carry it forward

nonetheless

maybe the river will alter course

stow away all previous explanations

including the words

     new epoch

this is not an exercise

in pessimism

or any ism

but simplicity

is not a strong card

right now

find your neighbors

keep your backpack ready

help carry the water

--- e b bortz

earth note 692

it took a month to acclimate

to the rainforest in thailand

opposite side of the earth

the body dripping free

     renewal

like a monsoon summer

water     always the source of life

flushing out soot and rust

coming from the midwest

where names are best forgotten

it's only fair

to begin at the origin

     stolen land and slave ships

backyard coke ovens and coal mines

there is more than history here

     twisted & forgotten

mountain songs

spring outta bowels and fault lines

     skipping past the egalitarian dreams

ellis island has walls of its own

there are no answers outside the rainforest

     this is not an original idea

maybe there are no answers

     at all

keeping an open ear to the ground

looking for the cloud trailing off with a story

you'll know it when you feel it

even rain pelts eventually shrivel the body

in the age of the ancients

there are no timelines

--- e b bortz

earth note 691

marshall trail

without speaking

the woods say it all

there's a tree laboring along the hillside

a steel lash close behind

a maple perfecting

the rope-a-dope

the twist & shout

the rattle of a streetcar rail

empty for decades

like the car barn scrapped

in piece rate

coughing up another deficit

     void of imagination

the judges from judges row

have fled to the suburbs

their terraces abandoned

secretly bleeding toward the avenue

when the air is heavy enough

the asphalt sweats

escape and follow the old trail

of the ancients

every tree contributing its own weight

rooted by common soil

of the living

--- e b bortz

earth note 690

koh samui 1988

for now the water is calm

lie on your back

you are closer to the equator

than you realize

a compass is only an instrument

by dawn the sea will open

like an extended hand

you'll suddenly find sunrise

it won't be like yesterday

or the week before

the waves pitch unique angles

on every floating body

for now the water is calm

--- e b bortz

earth note 689

the trees have lost their mojo

     gone limp

motion drained out like a clearcut forest

a dove sits alone on the wire

dreaming of escape

too hot to move

when the storm finally arrives

critters will panic for higher ground

flood plains will spread thru the hinterlands

at least one specie will be looking

for a place to bury their head

tv drivel is the offering before the upheaval

getting in all the advertising

before the power goes out

leaves hang from their own weight

only the dog knows what's up

barking like a precursor

corn & soy beans rot

where the sun hides

where the river meets the highway

--- e b bortz

every open end wrench leads to pennsylvania

the wind will rise

with the 5 o'clock whistle

it'll wake up the proletariat

like no manifesto

just in time for friday night drive-ins

starring the wild ones

& every rebel

with a cause

--- e b bortz

earth note 688

medano river bed

the water learns to ripple

like blood from the earth

every spring

barely surviving the summer heat

great sand dunes

the driest of southwesterly mexico winds

from the hillsides you see

towns     highways     dust storms

let your feet find footing

in the shadows

sangre de cristo

--- e b bortz

earth note 687

koh samui, 1989

it had rained a rainforest

the night before

thatched roof holding on

mosquito netting stretching over

the bungalow windows

for a sunday daybreak

all was quiet

tide washing up a steep pitch

channels in the sand

dark by dim light

i had thought it before

but never said it

     i was alone

     but not lonely

today would be a challenge

i would bicycle one and a half times

around the koh samui ring road

before the last speedboat of the day

left for surat thani

heat and rising water droplets

     breathing

from the hin lat falls

would bear witness

tuk-tuks would buzz all day

european and aussie tourists

would sing and gather on the beach

like in a quest of discovery

a farmer would pump up his bicycle tires

load his full weight in bananas

turn away from the sun

roll over the hills toward the port

     draped in a sweet smell of mango

--- e b bortz