I no longer call your name into the night
no more do my hands fit to yours
I have forgotten how your voice sounds
it took some time, but my heart stopped syncopating to the beat of yours
and in the process of letting go of you I became mine.

Tennessee Coal and Iron
Ensley Works , Birmingham , Alabama
Ensley Highlands , 30th Street

A turn of the century wood
framed house , sitting high on top a hill
Sitting on the front porch swing
in the sweltering August evening air

Playing "Your car next" , as cars ran
up and down the hill
Swapping turns , who gets what , laughing
at some of the outrageous wheels

Then as darkness descends
the dark skyline turns to Hell
Jets of forced blast air hits molten iron
and the gush of flames shoot high into the air

Eleven , twelve , maybe more
all the blast furnaces roared
as sparks flew up into the smoke
Surely these are the Devil's works
Where men are tortured so

As this for a backdrop now
it was time for ghost stories galore
Headless people and black drabbed ghouls
and little girls dripping wet that drowned in some unforgiving lake

We would draw up knees to our chest
in spite of the oppressive heat
And I would jump every time the breeze
would rustle the hidden leaves

So scared were we as bedtime neared
we'd ask mother if we could
spend "the night with you"
Ha ha ha , she replied , "NO !"
And then she went
Boo ! Boo ! Boo ! Boo ! Boo ! Boo !

I lived my life
Like a bullet from a gun
Racing down a barrel
From an explosive past
Always smoke and fire and blast
Then I moved on

In my haste racing away
I'm concerned not who
I graze
All my days I came
Crashing into , littered souls
What carnage too

Once I left I was gone
awesome , strong
Hell bent on ways
That destruction sent
Cold steel and
Hot lead

My nerves bled
and others too
Through your flesh and heart
I pierced
With never a thought
Of mercy due

I lived my life
Like a bullet
From a gun
Cold cold steel and
Red hot lead