birds creak on hills
hedging me & sewage is
dumped into the Ohio
the Allegheny &
Monongahela
nine billion gallons
a year yet there are
sunsets that burn into
me like vehicular
radiation this exhaust
I know from work
is from wanting is
from being diffident
in the greed I cannot
parse between heart &
blood that triangulates
itself around this city
all this virulent discharge
I claim enclosed is home

(originally published in Sybil Journal, Summer 2020)