Rick Campbell: Archeology

I have come a thousand miles

for this. J&L’s ruins, a gravel plain

on the Ohio’s west bank. There’s little

left but an archeology of memory—smokestacks,

ovens, foundry, smelter, slag. Someone

might ask what happened here? What brought

this culture to ruin? Drought? Pox?

Broken dreams? Who lived in ash

and cinder at the base of the great fires?

What twisted iron to scrap and left it to rust?

My inventory: butts, pull tabs, bolts, washers,

pencil stubs, bottle caps, screws, nails,

bones, rubbers, keys, our lives. I drop

a tarnished watch fob and broken penknife

in my pack and walk away.

From Gunshot, Peacock, Dog by Rick Campbell (Madville Publishing, 2018). 

Included in Vox Populi by permission of the publisher

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Above: Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation, Aliquippa Works, c. 1970.    Below: c.. 2018