In my time here,
I have watched
the vast green arching
of wild Virginia mountains
lose their graceful ridges
to industry and air.
What once
stood high and lush
and made the sky seem small
are merely coal-blackened coughs
on the dusty streets
of deserted towns.
Skeletal remains of when the
earth stood proud and fertile
shiver in the shadows of progress...
in my time here.