poetry

archives to ashes

Photo courtesy The Daily Camera.

archives to ashes

what happens when the museum burns down –
the space that’s supposed to hold your history
the archives and artifacts
the record of your past?

we know this happens –
the county courthouse burned down
taking its deeds to the grave
leaving us unsure of our own house’s age

the Library of Congress burned
not once but twice
leaving Thomas Jefferson to reseed it
with his own books

but for these little western mining towns
what burns with the history museum?
photographs, yearbooks, maps and bits of settler life
mine scrip and speakeasy keepsakes

our memories are so faulty
without bits of concrete evidence
it’s too easy to have license
to create a new past

poetry

tradeoffs

Still from a KDVR Fox31 report on the smoky taste to Superior's water from January 20, 2022.

tradeoffs

to drink from the reservoir
means to taste ash
from the two foot drifts
that ring its shore

to drink from the pipe
means to taste pure nothing
but to drink nothing
when there’s maintenance on the line

to scrub the reservoir water
means to taste pure nothing
but to suffer rashes from the chemicals
when you or your children bathe

to dredge the reservoir
means to mostly drain it
spreading the ashy water
to the other ponds in town

to drink from Louisville’s water
means to taste pure nothing
and keep healthy skin
but beg from a neighbor
whose patience may strain

to not drink
means to die