Ohio 2013

Steubenville’s DA recused herself. Her son
played on the team with the defendants.
She got death threats.
She and her family left town.

A man in a letterman jacket
walks out of Ohio Means Jobs,
crossed Main Street in front of my car.
Downtown, stores are Open by chance
or by appointment.

The stadium rides a hill,
seats half the town. Man O’ War shoots
six feet of flame when Big Red scores.
The stallion’s steaming nostrils decorate
every School Transport Van.

City of Murals: Dean Martin at The Spot.
Salute to Steel. Banking Pioneers beside
the Diocese of Steubenville
Thrift Store. Trent moved across district lines

to play for Big Red. With Trent at quarterback,
Mal'ik at wide receiver, the season
looked strong. Today, a fistful of pastel
balloons tangle in a bare treetop
above an empty parking lot.

Wendy Scott Paff’s first book of poems, Soon I Will Build an Ark, was published by Main Street Rag in 2014. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Green Mountains Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Harpur Palate, Cobalt, Fourth River, and others. She was on the editorial staff of the Pittsburgh Poetry Review, has an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh, and is a member of the Madwomen in the Attic. She has taught at the University of Pittsburgh, La Roche College, Geneva College, and Community College of Allegheny College. She has worked with college athletes, elementary school students, and recovering addicts. Her jobs have included legal assistant, social worker, professional writer, line cook, and a few dozen others. She and two others poets, Daniela Buccilli and Cherise Pollard, are editing an anthology titled Show Us Your Papers, to be published by Main Street Rag.