Contributor: Richard Schnap

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A cloud hangs over
The poisoned valley
Where the mills once stood

Where now sit strip malls
And restaurants devoted
To fresh appetites

But sometimes at night
You can hear the cries
Of the ghosts of steelworkers

Haunting what’s left
Of the rusted ruins
By the dead river’s shores

That carries their spirits
On twisted currents
To a burning sea

To be lost and forgotten
Like extinct animals
Buried in the past


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Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.