Elegy for North Central Pennsylvania

I sit, and read, and listen to the roar

Of passing gas trucks up on forty-four;

I fret and fume about my fractured fate,

About the greed and graft in my home state.

That Pennsylvania’s Representatives

Care more for moneymaking than what lives

Makes me despair and think that all is lost.

“It’s jobs!” they cry—but at what awful cost?

By state and local governments betrayed,

We residents of gas-land are afraid

No laws will be enacted for our sake—

Just bills by politicians on the take.

Our Pennsylvania Wilds—turned into wells—

Viewed only from the aspect of what sells.

The wildlife frightened by the drilling din,

Environmental carnage—not a sin?

Pollution worries always in our minds—

Our water, air and land—too many kinds.

The leaks from trucks and holding ponds and wells,

A brew of chemicals to fill two hells.

Before the rush to rape this lovely land,

Before the water hauling and the sand,

Before the laying of the many pipes,

Before the focus on one’s gas lease rights—

This place was known as special on the earth;

It brought to hunters and to anglers mirth.

Vacationers enjoyed the healthy air,

And sighting eagles, whitetail deer and bear.

This place was quiet, tranquil and serene,

Where diesel trucks were rarely to be seen,

Where mostly wildlife roamed the mountaintops—

Not huge machines with all their starts and stops.

A corporate army marches through the land,

Technology and force at their command;

They clear-cut trees to build the roads they need,

Drill deep beneath the earth to sate their greed.

I wonder will the day of sense e’er dawn,

Before the animals and trees are gone?

Or will this madness take us to our doom:

A world that’s raped, to serve as just our tomb?