Mountainous Decay

Life blood drains away
Mixing with the dry dust
Bleeding into the pints,
The steel gilded with rust.

From death in the valleys
To spires in the sky
Opioid fevered dreams
And medications gone awry

For

Death in these valleys
Comes both quick
and slow
The mine creaks to a halt
Fentanyl killing without fault

Soot caked no more
These empty hollow places
Languish unkempt
Mirroring a dying people’s faces

-Arthur Powell