Small Town
—by míchealín daugherty

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Please,
Don’t go back
Because you can still Laugh
At the romanticallynotioned
Yearning for the quaint purity
The peaceful security
Of the postcardy picturesque Small Town. Ha!

Yes, the Small Town
Bathed in the putrid smell of carbonaceous coke
Covered in coal dust and the
Hypocritical shards of
Religious-rightened rhetoric.
Where the schools have holiday
So boys can kill the gentle deer... for fun.

Yes, the Small Town
Where woman and children
Are nothing more than byproducts
Of the molten steel--Hot, volatile, repugnant steel
Like the hard working-turned hard drinking men
Who produce it.

Yes, the Small Town
Where dreams (if you have them)
Are suffocated like the air,
Corrupted and foul as it
Seeps from blast furnaces
To blacken the clouds.

Yes, the Small Town
From whence you escaped
Like the boy in the football film
You made all the right moves
So Please,
Don’t go back.

Copyright © 2009 Ireland's OWN. 

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Page last updated 1 Mar 2009
Ireland's OWN Logo and Small Town Background
by Míchealín Daugherty
Copyright © 2009 Ireland's OWN. All Rights Reserved.