Allegheny, Monongahela, Ohio

For a town with so much water, you’d think
we’d be a boating place, but the rivers
were always for work: riverbanks crowded
with warehouse, factory, train, and the Mill;
it’s that strip of water where the fire lights
reflect at night from a black ribbon
you cross over by bridge to get any
where around here; it’s the bridges you come
to respect, it’s the tunnels — ways over,
ways through — that slow-down traffic, bottleneck,
and no getting past them — rivers, mountains
we built over, up, and under until
it’s the streets and sidewalks you remember:
this way to work, this way to go back home.

ξ

Noah Stetzer’s poems have appeared in Sixth Finch, The Cortland Review, The Night Heron Barks, and other journals. Originally from Pittsburgh PA, he now lives in New York. Noah can be found online at www.noahstetzer.com.