[Newspoetry] newspoetry daily poems to end Dec 31, 2002

[Donald L Emerick]

NewsPoetic Elegy I:

The times-shattered man
in the tattered jacket
overslept on the night
when the coal trains
that clamored over tracks,
tresseled above his head,
stopped running forever.

The mine didn't produce,
not much, not anymore,
not since industry demand
like consumer demand, too,
had lapsed lacking comeback.

Coal was not economic,
it was not efficient,
nor burned it cleanly,
while oil or gas do,
and yield huge profits
for controlling cartels.

Gone were the winds
that whistled the tunes
of strangers passing-by,
soft lullabies for hoboes,
asleep under the bridges
of some Madison County,
waiting the next freight
going my way alone.

Grass will grow wildly
down the parallel tracks
that lead us away
to lead nowhere anymore;
it will wave away
the hours, consulting flowers,
seeming but elemental that
it never rides a train.

He missed last train,
one that never came;
he overslept an overdue
never again to come
train away from somewhere,
was left standing alone
in train-abandoned ruins.

Thanks for listening,
Donald L Emerick