Loss

•

Valleys dammed
hillsides logged
coal gouged out
and trucked away

Looks like a sound
return on investment
with no other
price to pay

Until the rains come
and the dammed up
impoundments
give way

A raging wall
of water, rocks
and trees flattens
everything in its path-

Houses gone, roads,
bridges and those who
fled come back
to a grim aftermath

In flaying a mountain
to smoke the heart
the whole is sacrificed
to the part

There is no way
to reckon loss
without tracing
addiction's cost