1. 10th and Spruce Sts.
adjust a second to a just minute
minute particularly in the openings
Spruce yourself up to go outside
your window to cars bump into each other
confrontation communication come on from day
should come out from there, shin splint, accident
each other to his Chrysler, talk radio waves
we the people greet weekend warrior, x approaching infinity
intersection's imperfection pecuniary union
driver's license to register complaint, assure insure
we hold these two to themselves indignant
"under the umbrella" hell of a day
2. 800 Spruce St.: Pennsylvania Hospital
hospitable corridors Franklinian history this
then patients walked in a Rush, a case of dry moat
you stay in your circle, a straight line toeing
ticket stubbers in the garden gawking (beg pardon)
chronic irritating erratum? we got 'em
learn how to swat 'em, top to bottom
General Versemaker Beggar couldn't get
a legacy up, become a pith-publisher
half owner with a haberdasher silent partner
invisible handout Dr. Job's got nice
patients and an even nicer waiting room
always room for jello , she said by way of hello
scratching her hairnet three sq. ft / day
into the halway, journeys on gurneys
into the street the air misting dusting
for Poor Dick's fingerprints, nice work if you can get it
3. 702 Spruce St.
pass what was once an orphanage, sing an orphan's song
signs of orphans long gone Mother Seton's
Sisters of Charity a rarity, nun thing
like a time disparity passing Flemish trinity
playing Hookey (Andrew, Dorothy) rubbed off a grave stone
sing an orphan song "music that turns on
abandonment" reckless abandon from reck-
less endangerment kingdom phylum class order
genus species variety you
endangered sing an orphan's song: King Philip
can't only fool god, so very young King Philip
came over from Ghana, so vestal, yes King Philip
cease, onto fools gold, surely vastly yearn King
Philip call orphan feet, go sing, vayas, yielding
4. Washington Square Park
x unmarks the gravesbinge yellow purge black
take notice when it strikes it rich, gets off the river
mad dash 'old Rush of '93 odor of rotten coffee
mosquitoes mistaken for a bad cup of Joe
blood siphon blood let blood siphon blood let some get
wise, take a cold shower bark wine and powder-D
at the Helm of the burial from Bush Hill to the Square
how you treat the Negro heroes treating you? Ab Jones
wants to know gotta stand accused of shit you didn't do
but the money's good, until you go too give unto
Caesar Cranchal nothing he don't want born black die yellow
all skin, melanin or no melanin, created to degrade
equally, it's brotherly six feet under a democratic wonder
read all about it "at the sign of Franklin's Head"
GW splits town, fill the word-void with a namesake from down
South in a century where the (sut) loving ain't
good sexual Harris-meant at ten Civil paces
or wait for a return, George alone kowtowing
to the scourge-survivors Frost Bite Bites Skeeters
News at Eleven death conquering death around Richard Allen
Jan. 11th and the grass is damn green history's fables
make shitty fertilizer bodies and bones growth hormone
who died to give you liberty depending on who you is
but, yes, in fairness, gave it up asking freedom for a light
no dogs allowed sniff or get snuffed
attend to a diverse Univers. or take a dive and do it then
5. 435 Chestnut St.: Benny's Place
Ben's Diner for dinner, didn't you dine
and hadn't you been with her? Whither the state
of us things?, me & my man over there, John Wilkes
in his booth, waiting on meatloaf. Phyllis & Claus
ordering Gene's special variety: the King burger, no bun
ten tiny juke boxes don't make a juke joint
even if one tells me about "mice elf" & everyone
gives thanks & someone shows up w/ a juju & people
this is the church, this is the steeple, steeped
in speech's staples - what's the word? On the street -
got some change? At the bank - a ten, a five
and five ones. At the willing street Wall - buy low & sell high.
At the wailing mall - feel low & get high. Here -
if the gravy make you sick & quit, blame it on the Jukes.
Wilkes btwn booths & the john: it ain't all bad
says he, come late for the eggs. we do. a new
crew pressed in by twos. it's raining. construction's
tunneling makes for thick puddles. we were all due
6. Independence Hall
out of the diner into the finer confines of sky
and scraper face the face of The Signer clutching
his documents innocuously and fiercely since 1980
founding pop done in dark brown, possibly bronze
not stone glad not to be bone catching a cold
no viral spirals in bronze since '80 Dutch the master's
righting project, the Hall becomes a Heritage Site, dictionarily
fine diction placards printed at a Webster convention
old Noah rubbing elbows w/ Dan, apocalyptic visions in
four edited editions, printed in twos, Dewey decimal blues
shelf me, shelf me, Melvil Louis Kossuth D., keep Mr. W.
away from me "a present Adams and Jefferson he
would denounce" trounce dewy-eyed just thinking
about it to your right is the Hall, watch your step over
Kennedy & Lincoln's feet (old bronze feet) (old bronze feet)
we want nary a tarry, & no mixing with that Mick Commodore Barry
skaters play indie tunes pending censor among the pendants
a human course which, the cops say, becomes necessary to
dissolve: to which replies and petitions for a decent respect, a
declaration of the causes which impel this castigation no
truths self-evident, no equal lanes, though all this will end
up on a commercial the revolution will not be full of eyes
the revolution will smell of lies, the revolution will not be
Hellenized, the revolution will relativize size, the revolution
will not be these guys, will not be Mellonized, will not revise
revolution rhymes: of, by, for, not of before; of, by, for, and not before
7. 3rd & Market Sts.: Ben Franklin House
scaffold or scaffolding? standing between
3rd and 4th: there's a time-line-sign on 8th:
1682 Philadelphia founded___1932 cheese steak invented
___1997 Dawn Staley returns home. this is an accurate history
whether Dawn's early or late, everything's in order
scaffold or scaffolding? steel beams to scale
neither a catafalque nor a catacomb be
the lines catalectic resist catalogues, catalogic
on one side: Colonial Penn Life insuring
flags tacking toward 5th on the other:
TO LET: B. Franklin, Inquire Within a right
into a passage white beaming passing for house
better that you've read what's dead? fight plaques of Ben's
sayings in this cavity, betraying weightier displays, weighing
one against the other . Savages we call them -- they think the same
lines rise refuse to be put to bed early . 'We believed
all your stories; why do you refuse to believe ours?'
red man's deed goes punished . Franklin's salutations to the
Six Nations don't want to play le'go my Eggo
with Canassatego take a detour on the way to wealth
time lines up to be counted 1785 Ben's neighbors' favorite
laborers take apart a neighboring prison a facilitated correction
or a relocation unremembered unremembered in beams
after this? BF got good and rich some requisite hack
half-baffled requisitioned the scaffold others kept it
from folding, others do in the dusk's surly light
Ben warms himself under three white steel beamed chimneys
with invisible cold air fire a mom and two sons
enter the museum follow phantom smoke to Market
we we we having none of it home or all the way
8. 847 N. 3rd St.: Ortlieb's
the belly laugh not the knowing snort
the dialectics of it was coming out of both ends
RT blowing his brains out on Cousin Mary
qua Polly Rhythmiana Jones compliments of
NC's comping saying something like Coltrane is not
my uncle's wife's daughter but Giant Steps is my
favorite uncle's wife's daughter for years and has been
run interference into inference infernal note's
infiltration of notation, interior dialogue's infidelity
to formulations of inferiority's hierarchical farcicals
gets in your vesicles, infinity within a finished
cabinet's permeable wood paneling . impeccable impudence of
infidels infecting the pecking order in the public court
in a series of peccavis: for gettin me fatter
four eyes half-sent half-unsent or
met half-way between us & them and us-send-them
keeping options operative in operatic acrobatics
open to distant aquatic whispers another
one of these Gravity Ales for us, two of what she's having
keep 'em coming till there's two of her, created equal
stay till the night's through, maybe till we can't see
but in the early light hear something through the thunderous cant
9. Kensington & Huntington Sts.: The North Philadelphia Needle Exchange
morning again now and again in Kensington
keep your eyes on the forms, what they were watching
learning to declare dependents, W2 blues workshop
the rest are at rest or restlessly rising
or under arrest the games haven't been changed
to protect the indigent the only change
asking for change & needle exchange
not, what's up doc? but, what's this look like doc?
cellulitis detritus cold rush of '98, all's maintenance
early vernaculars rushing up, Bleed and purge all
Kensington. Drive on, Ben! when then when then
who can sing Kensington, hum things of Huntington?
lots ain't vacant of cantation's acorns
plangently they play and plant against placation, no plain
speak or sailing among the plaintive, lots giving birth to lots
Bleed and purge all Kensington. Drive on, Ben!
little leaguers dressed like the Oakland A's marching in lockstep
among members of AA and AAA . who is the alpha?
among tables & trays, alcohol pads, antibiotics, who
is the alpha past septic man and SEPTA
train who is the alpha mingling onto
Aramingo among stragglers and goers who is
the alpha home again home again who?
a statue, her lips hurting, splitwon't split her corner
a cornering under border guard's order or
a guarded ordering bordering on an underdogs corner restoration?
to resort or restore question the heavens she is like
the stars you can't see the stars she is like the
stars she's never seen the stars she is like the stars
there are no stars people been driving on for hrs AM
radio proudly hailing cabs, bright cars beneath the underpass
there are three . she is three of them, in other words, drivers and
passengers both proof that its morning, proof of ID, of purchase, of
still being here, the medivan arriving, the exchange beginning
[from Morning Constitutional (Spencer Books / Handwritten Press, 2001)]