Catharine

Rausch Gap was a large mining town that stood between 1828 and 1910 in Lebanon County, PA. The mines ran too low and the railroad moved its operation to Pine Grove. It remains a ghost town.

hammer strikes nail

the lines

snaking through mountains

sweat glides down their faces

mingling with the half-river's flow

Striving to feed

the sick and the poor

but disease still comes

on the wind

stealing youth from their beds

your sleeping baby form

forever still

stranded in a time

where dreams were made

on the backs of men

this silent image

one by one

they dissappear

dreams dissolve

homes abandoned

your grave remains

Author's Note

I'm not quite happy with this yet. I originally started this as a story about what Catharine's life would have been like if she lived and watched the railroad town dissappear as more men were left without jobs and the mines couldn't produce enough coal. Its hard to go from one type of writing to another even if its about similar things. Please let me know what you think anyway. Hopefully i can refigure the whole thing in the next couple days

Reviews

[Tim]

This poem and the whole idea behind it is really interesting. It's not the typical love poem. I think you did a good job by giving us enough information about where Catherine comes from to leave an impression, but in order for us to feel for her, we need to know more about her. Being she's just a baby, that would be hard even though we can relate to her innocence. If she were 5 or 6 or within that range it might be easier to recount experiences (such as you mentioned) that would make us feel for her and the men you mentioned.

I wrote a poem 29 stanzas long in order to tell the whole story. Overall, I like this poem a lot and I commend you for such an interesting idea.