West Virginia Turns Poem by martin elbin

This world is grey and green
Between the steep cut walls
Beneath a cloudy pillowed sky
And cold is how it seems

The walls of coal, of sandy stone
Change color with the rain
Tint shadows and the frosty woods
The shades of old, old bone

There on the tilted rocky slope
Apart from scrabbled wasted scrap
Living signs of other days
Summer's past and distant hope

The stunted trees are bare and dull
Remembering is all that's left
Days gone by of gold and red
And windy tossing autumn's cull

Out standing twisted spotted bark
Make horse and throaty sounds
Swaying, creaking, cracking limbs
Fade slow into encroaching dark

Such stark grey green and nothingness
Seem clothed in heavy hearted mist
Before the bloom of coming days
That leap out sudden, more or less

And grey stones fade beneath
Brightens cliffs once wrinkled drab
Silky coats of spring's green shock
Dogwood's whites and summer wreath

This world is green and grey
Between the steep cut walls
Shadows bathe the children
And sighs a fresh warm day