cold porch lights chase me thirty miles per hour downhill to the Ohio past bison in greasy fields old company town hollow filled by skinny creek run full of yellow dog seeps out back behind a mine store slumped sick grasping some wet glyphs left by cold sweat drinks nicks dug into worn wood counters that clattered scrip collectible yet worthless punched through the heart when folks walked in out of the woods out of the fields between the coal seams within the pale sold lives for pay bought some comfort for a short while got shut back out when portals closed deep roots yanked from ripped up earth big dishes on roofs above empty ones on tables will we ever learn the fortunes held in farms? do we ever get very far above our raising before they beat us back down to the ground? Chad Burrall was born and raised in Wheeling, and comes from ancestors going back to the Wetzels, Bonnets, McCrearys, and Coffields of Big Wheeling Creek. He recently placed in several categories in the WV Writers Contest, has been published in several poetry anthologies. He can usually be found enjoying some of Wheeling’s great local songwriters or fly fishing as remote a stream as he can currently get away with… Chad is currently working on his first full length book of poems and can be reached at cburrall@comcast.net. Visit Vandaleer.com for more information, or connect with us on Facebook. If you’re interested in contributing, send an email to wv@vandaleer.newcitywheeling.org. It’s time to rise up and show the world the real West Virginia. Photo By Steve Novotney Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYou must be logged in to post a comment.