What you take
from the ground
doesn’t always
give back.
Or it gives back
in poverty, pollution
and greed.
The miners
have moved on
leaving pits
and rotting joists
and an empty town
with no name.
Sometimes I like
to walk here and see
what’s missing,
imagine how
the earth must feel
losing itself.
Nowadays
nothing replaces
the dark emptiness
except tourists
seeking ghosts
they have forgotten
who once lived
where only wind wails
on the loneliest night.
