Letters and Diary Poetry posted July 4, 2020 Chapters:  ...18 19 -20- 21... 


Exceptional
This work has reached the exceptional level
free verse

A chapter in the book Carolina Pastorals

Threads pt. 2: Fading Figures

by estory

Empty mills
in the empty mill towns
fading from memory,
like the figures fading
from the cross stitching of samplers

Their once proud workers
wandering off
and leaving their houses to the rivers

A lifetime
left behind
in the records of bankrupt companies

Memories of weddings and baptisms
seem worn into the dresses
hanging in the closets

While the train whistle hangs in the air
as the train passes the station,
on its way somewhere.



Recognized


I want to dedicate this piece to my coworker Diane Jones who worked in the fabric mills for most of her life here in North Carolina. I wanted this to be a tribute to those worked in this once proud industry, now fading from the map. I wanted to capture the sense of lives lost in the bankruptcy shuffle, of memories built up in houses and towns now left empty, of those towns being left behind in the train ride of progress. It really hangs on the use of the imagery more than anything else. estory
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