Taking Care of an Old City
Men work in the streets
blocking off holes in the ground
with their big trucks
they hide the sewage systems
vertical shafts revealing
the underside of a city
networks of pipes
leaking buildings drip
the held-back river
.
They tell the city to notify the residents
a boil alert, don’t drink the water
from where the weld let loose
a steady stream out
something else may have tried to go in
.
Maybe that’s what they were thinking
the people with the old money
who hold onto buildings for good luck,
allowing them to decay, they are
the only thing left of them in Wheeling.
Eventually, it’s better off to tear them down
than let someone else in
to own the city.
.
Perhaps the old-money people still live here
in the bodies of the men
who work in the streets
blocking holes to the underbelly of this old music town
with their big trucks.
Passive Architect 