Soot and Grey Ashes

All along the river bank,

up the hills, and down the valleys,

soot and grey ashes,

poison the soil.

Not a thing is spared,

houses, gardens,

churches, steeples,

fast food joints

and little shops,

everywhere you look,

everywhere you turn

soot and grey ashes

poison the land.

Soot in the food,

soot in the homes,

soot in the eye,

soot in the sky,

soot in the lover’s kisses,

soot in the marriage bed.

Robbie Burns said it best.

“Satan, I fear thy sooty claws,

I hate thy brunstane stink.”

Stink of the sooty mills,

the stink of iron and coal,

the stink of money,

the stink of soot and grey ashes.

The stink of money

that kills the soul.