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Sabila Siddiqui Jul 2018
People are here.
I reach out deep within
to the place of various hue and vibrancy
to paint it in the air and on me
but that place is empty.
You can hear them if you listen
When the wind blows in the night
The people who once lived here
Who are gone now, out of sight

The buildings, many shuttered
Housed ten thousand at it's peak
Now empty, vacant, skeltons
Once vibrant, now, so bleak

Silver once was mined nearby
Thousands flocked here for the chance
To strike it rich, be wealthy
Uninvited to the dance

For all that comes with promise
The devil comes as well
With money comes temptations
As the small town starts to swell

Business and homesteads
Spring up where once was none
Lawlessness is rampant
The law is by the gun

Saloons, hotels, and harlots
Soapbox preachers, grab your purse
We all cannot be winners
That is just the boom towns curse

Like a zephyr in the desert
A boom town changes in a flash
Prosperity will vanish
And so does all the cash

The boom town dies as quickly
As a flower in the snow
Scattered now back homeward
With nothing left to show

The earth takes all she's given
The buildings may still stand
But, the mines are all now empty
There's no value to this land

Listen to the voices
The wind let's them sing out
You can hear them in the darkness
That's when the locals all come out

A ghost town is a relic
It shows the best and worst of man
So, listen to the wind now
Hear their stories if you can
Sandra Lee Jun 2018
Mining
***
        Unsafe, Hazardous
          Polluting,  Contaminating, Fouling
        Waste,     Blight,     Damage,     Liability
        Spoiling,  Dirtying,  Poisoning
       Tainted, Unclean
      
****
         Desecration
This is a Diamante poem, shaped like a diamond. Thanks to APriCoT for her influence and encouragement. See her poem Global Warming for information on how to write one.
Orange Rose May 2018
I stumble in the blinding dark.
I cannot see a single mark,
Of light, of rock, of man or beast.
It seems the night will have its feast.
When suddenly a glowing light,
Emits from somewhere out of sight.

I stagger toward it, unaware,
Of a sudden thinness in the air.

A cave now seems to beckon me,
And as I enter, all I see,
Are crystals shining like the sun.
Like broken mirrors, dull are none.
My fear now seems to melt away,
And false safety is here to stay.

For suddenly I feel safe and sound,
Though I'm miles and miles below the ground.
Richard Grahn Oct 2017
You always said “I’ll love you always.”
But always didn’t last.
Your memories are a bulldozer
Just plowing through my past.

We stripped away the barren soil
And got down to the lode.
It wasn’t what we thought was there
There wasn’t any gold.

Now the ground lays cold and bare.
There’s nothing left of us to share.
We’ve divvied up what’s left of us
And left the ground to turn to dust.

We wanted gold
To free our souls and wash away the tears
But the gears of time kept grinding on
Churning up the years.

So I hold the gems we found back then
Closely to my beating chest
To recollect, to not forget.
**At least for you, I’ll do my best.
Made a significant change after posting this. The changed parts are in bold
Luke Jul 2017
I’d been standing underneath the sun for hours in the heat,
When I came upon a largish piece of quartz between my feet,
I sunk my pickaxe deep inside the rock which shone with all,
The pretty colours trapped within a gorgeous crystal ball,
The axe swung down a hundred times, the rock stayed the same shape,
And in my own frustration all that I could do was gape,
The colours of the magic quartz were hypnotizing me,
I’d noticed others resting underneath the nearby tree,
But determined, covered in cold sweat I continued my work,
To try to find the treasures which inside the rock may lurk,
When twenty days had passed I realized I had not eaten,
But by a piece of stone I was so sure I’d not be beaten,
I’d had no sleep, was miserable and fearful of the creatures,
Alone and in the dark now I could recognize their features,
But instead of marching home I bent and carried on my chore,
Beating away forever like the sea upon the shore,
A year had passed, I knew deep down I’d made no actual progress,
But I told myself the rock was smaller so as to defeat stress,
I looked around and noticed I’d been on my own some time,
The hammering of the pickaxe like some old forgotten rhyme,
And as I slaved on foolishly with rusty worn out tool,
I wondered why on earth I had been doing this at all?
The canary
with its
handsome brow
cloister monk
that quarry
with cow
that graze
coal an
edifice for
living in
climes north
in midst
a fire
burns out
into the
wind his
***** bowels.
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