talkin' carbon blues

in the middle
of the west virginia mountains
not far from beckley
an old twisting road
named polemic
wraps itself around a steep hillside
and i suspect
a cluster of houses
that might answer
these eternal questions
about whether capitalism
after grabbing a lot of coal
     out of its a--hole
would consider a serious
redistribution of wealth
to cover the thousands of miners
broken by black lung and cancer throats
broken knees and broken hips
crying widows and children
company store and captive town
     thieves
and doing this
one hundred percent redistribution
just before shutting down
once and for all
     every coal portal
          gouged out mountain
     black dustbowl
          bought and paid for politician
          still telling us
          there'll be pie in the sky
          when we die

--- e b bortz