The Willamette River
When the clouds depart for a few months,
the sun shines on her like a spotlight,
as she sits there waiting and hoping.
Kids think that she looks nice,
relaxed, like the perfect companion for
swimming or catching a great big fish.
Those older and wiser call her
a true toxic femme fatale.They say
she’s a temptress from the industrial
side of town who has become
pure poison to anyone stupid enough
to get too close as she gleefully uses
her hedonistic touch to spread her disease.
After all, garbage clings to her
like static electricity as she travels across
the state. Sometimes, her guests get engulfed
in it and it’s not too long before they end
up at Good Samaritan Hospital.
In reality, it’s all a grim diagnosis
for a lonely girl, now friendless and empty,
who considers herself to be Oregon’s very own
maligned mutant and relates painfully to
Rogue from the X-Men.