Rogue Valley Centralia, Pa
Pennsylvania 61
through the very heart for some
where industry has long been gone
looks like any old abandoned town
it looks like any other place
forgotten and left to waste
its residents have long been chased
away
steam rises from the fields
smoke-clouds skim the street
a fire burns underneath
the fallen city
this old mining community
is hotter than the planet mercury
a statuette without a face
disfigured and erased
four hundred acres all unseen
been burning since 1960
the government gave it up
paid money for all the people to move out
they took their pictures and precious things
their families, their histories
level it all let nature reclaim
this town
smoke rises from the hills
like some kind of poison spell
the mines are smoldering still
after fifty years
they'll burn for a hundred more
hollowing a harrowing core
the coal went then the soul went
the other way down
Pennsylvania 61
level it all
don't look back on
Pennsylvania 61
