Keep me in the hollows and the valleys.

Let there be churches in the marketplace

and small red boats on the Allegheny.

Let the funicular climb its mountain at dusk

and seven-hundred bridges light

the rivers, revealing the city’s dark wishbone.

Let me see my face there, mirrored, mapped in lights.

I am far-flung and kneeling over memory’s holystone

to pray: let each open space be made of water.

Let every road go unnamed.

Let the land be so steep the houses teeter

on stilts. Whenever I am,

let the half-life of this city in my skin

be longer than I’ll live.

From Allegheny, Monongahela by Erinn Batykefer. Used by permission of the poet and Red Hen Press. Copyright © 2009 by Erinn Batykefer.