southside pittsburgh
boxcars rocking over rusted roadbed
dense steel inertia
perfect circles rammed together
swiping beaten riverbank shoulders
ripped-out steel-wool armpits
green river limping
broken concrete landings
splintered glass aluminum cans
gnarled trees
squirm in silt
shifting water
a limb broken by impatience
reaches for the sky
brown ducks
dull
lost
feathers & ripple circles opening
beneath disciplined worldly gulls
white transient newcomers
infiltrators slipping in
in the shadows of coal barges
looking for a place to crash
strung out from too many storms
coast of heartbreaks
looking to the empty banks
lost iron veins
plowed by plunder
black barren layers of earth soot flyash
looking for the perfect hideout
a lifeline
a place to call home
---- e b bortz
No comments:
Post a Comment