City That Reads: Baltimore Signs and Markings Volume 36
Patrick Swickard
8.5"x11" paperback, 204 pages
I am leading a quiet life
in Mike’s Place every day
reading the Classified columns.
I have read the Reader’s Digest
from cover to cover
and noted the close identification
of the United States and the Promised Land
where every coin is marked
In God We Trust
but the dollar bills do not have it
being gods unto themselves.
I read the Want Ads daily
looking for a stone a leaf
an unfound door.
I hear America singing
in the Yellow Pages.
One could never tell
the soul has its rages.
I read the papers every day
and hear humanity amiss
in the sad plethora of print.
I see where Walden Pond has been drained
to make an amusement park.
I see they’re making Melville
eat his whale.
I see another war is coming
but I won’t be there to fight it.
I have read the writing
on the outhouse wall.
I helped Kilroy write it.
-Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Angry Kevin. Bridge scenes. Subs. Sandtown. Safe Streets. Car wash. Freddie Gray. Bail bonds. Art as disciplinary action. Scenes from near Penn-North. Korean barbers. Phone books. More phone books. Sidewalk chalk. Sowebofest. Poppleton. Even more phone books. I guess this is the unofficial phone book issue.
Includes:
Random sample page:
