if i were a river and you were the city
i'd ask of your residents to spit in my heart
to throw sludge in my waters
to toss wrappers and bottles and nooses and anything in-between
to let the thick, gluttonous swamp of human waste
accumulate under my bridges
to place tentative fingers into blood-red throats and
excrete the very bile of their lives into me
to run naked, filth encrusted fingers
through the vile depths of my flow
that is what i would ask of you, love
*if i had the courage