Cincinnati When the swollen Ohio River floods again, and the Rats are making lifeboats of aluminum siding, I’ll watch it on TV and say to my friends I lived there once, in Cincinnati, and it was not so bad. Gets a lot of bad press, Cincinnati, What with the censorship and the grandmother busted for feeding parking meters and The retarded man with the brick shot down and Marge Schott praising The Nazis and the burning crosses at the unfinished Underground Railroad Museum and the birthplace of the KKK right down the street, In addition to that of President Taft, and who’s to say What is art but the people who have to live near it anyway? Some people call it a cesspool, others the most livable of cities. I say appreciate it for what it is, there They wear white, gingham dresses, and spit politely, and sell soaps Which make everything clean. Fuck the animals anyway. Inject them, proctor and gamble them, Radiate them, like the indigent people at University Hospital, Massive doses of radiation, fuck them, They were poor anyway, the doctors Knew what would happen, But they tested anyway and Why yes, they do die. Fuck them, go ahead now, Test all the new drugs on them, at Phoenix Labs, it always rises To the top, you need to spit to breathe there, yes we have Chiquita bananas. Fuck Honduras anyway. I’ll never let them say that You were not my friend, Cincinnati, let me count the ways Scratch that. It’s all relative and the flies, surprisingly, Are not so bad in Cincinnati, they respect the scents of Rotten yogurt peach schnapps moist pork and pollen, they Respect those smells, and they’ve learned to stay away It’s not like shit, Cincinnati. Look, to everyone around I’ll say, look, it’s better than LA The cops won’t shoot you there, if you’re white And the Rainman was filmed there and they’ve Got good ice cream at a place called Graeters and I don’t understand but Some people like the Chili, which is made with Chocolate, and I spent Three years of my life there and it was not so bad there Three years of my life there It was not so bad there Are hills there and there and there and there is a river and Aisles and aisles of good cheap bourbon across the bridge there and there is Nothing wrong with preserving an island if you are an islander there Is nothing wrong with judging if you are a judge It’s not your home, Cincinnati, so you don’t understand it. People born and died there People died and born there Just leave it alone to grow, the mold count is high but You can live there, if you need to, It’s most livable, if you live there. I lived there once, in Cincinnati, and it was not so bad. PREVIOUS / NEXT

Dirk Reads Scott’s Poem “Cincinnati” 3:25 391K