The Planet Magazine

Coal skies

This is another amazing poem by KingEmpo which can be found in their collection 'ocean spirit'.

the sunlit summers
of my childhood
running across meadows
amber poppies
brushing against my legs
chasing tangerine monarchs
across the golden grasses
and oak trees nestled
in dips between the hills
the mellow summer waves
crashing softly in the distance
raising a worn butterfly net
flitting with the soft breeze
swiping at these flying jewels
pirouetting like autumn leaves
until i felt dizzy and laid down
staring at the faded blue sky

twenty years later
the meadows are charred
burnt by the scorching heat
and endless wildfires
raging across the dry hills
until blackened lands
speckled with mud-cracked
ditches and riverbeds
are all that are left
the orange monarchs
the topaz gems of summer
are merely ghosts
drifting across dead plains
searching for wildflowers
that have burnt away
disappeared under the heat
never to blossom to life
and my children
look at the vast skies
soot stained with coal fumes
and wonder why
the skies were cerulean
in the old children's books

gazing at these gray skies
smothered by coal
my childhood memories
crumble like ashes
slipping through my fingers
like flitting coal dust
in soft morning light