At the Cuyahoga Flats

Here, in the river’s oxbow-bend and silt,
the muddy unmarked grave of Republic Steel.
Here is the elegy to ore and pellet:
inertial loaders, the quiet of the mill.

See how deliberate the passing barge—
as if somewhere hotter furnaces are lit.
Rust in the water and reclining drawbridge:
oxide and spall, the color of ash at sunset