So that others need not follow my example.
So that we may no longer be called Job’s children.
So the spoor of our smokestack heart can be impaled
by its steeple surrounds. So there shall be a reckoning.
So what buoys is more than memories from a
generous pour. So sinister becomes dexter.
So rock rolls from our souls again.
And because here we are all immigrants. Because old steel
workers know the difference between strong and hard.
Because a homeless man’s benediction inhabits Euclid Avenue
like wind off the lake. Because we are poor but defiant.
Because this will not succeed without human sacrifice.
Because I drink the water of the Cuyahoga.
Because tooth and nail is my kind of city.