tailings of silver mine…
restored schoolhouse boasts
plank floor, rolled maps, stove.
main street brothels burned,
rusty bank safe deposited
in dry wash, coal house and
water tank remember trains.
iron fence borders cemetery
atop boot hill, rock piles
mark graves of ghost town.
Kim hosts quadrille#26 at dVerse Poets…write 44-words, including “ghost”.
Feb 17, 2017 @ 17:22:44
You’re speaking my turf now. There is something especially compelling about visiting old western cemeteries.
Feb 18, 2017 @ 06:51:44
Yes, indeed.
Feb 15, 2017 @ 11:13:12
I love visiting ghost towns and imagining what it was like before ~ Good one Lynn ~
Feb 15, 2017 @ 00:04:46
I like how the coal house and water tanks remember trains. I imagine it’s both fascinating and eerie to visit a ghost town.
Feb 15, 2017 @ 08:50:13
Yes, that sums it up well… thanks!
Feb 14, 2017 @ 15:55:15
Great descriptions here. Makes me wonder what life happened there, before it all went up to ghosts. I live in Southern Nevada, where we have quite the abundance of these. 😉
Feb 14, 2017 @ 16:25:29
My husband will want to visit! We’ve been to several ghost towns in NM and AZ
Feb 14, 2017 @ 13:04:58
Nice description of a ghost town.
Feb 14, 2017 @ 12:29:31
Sorry it took a while to get to your poem, Lynn, but it was worth the wait. I’ve never visited a ghost town and your poem has given me a good idea of what one would be like. It’s those little details, like the rolled maps and the rusty bank safe. I love the last lines – chilling.
Feb 14, 2017 @ 12:50:22
Thanks, Kim…it was a great prompt! My husband loves to explore ghost towns so we’ve visited a few in the southwestern states.
Feb 14, 2017 @ 12:57:48
The closest I got to a ghost town was a ghost house. When I lived in the middle of nowhere in Ireland, there was a house (on the land that belonged to our cottage but was rented to a farmer) that was left as it was when the family that once inhabited it died of TB. We went for a look. Only the cows had been inside and everything was pretty much as it had been left, bar some cow pats and a few overturned chairs!
Feb 14, 2017 @ 10:52:29
There’s something so romantic about a ghost town, and they exist on other places too. I visited one in Northern Norway once…
Feb 14, 2017 @ 14:44:08
Often old mining towns here…in Scandinavia as well?
Feb 14, 2017 @ 10:42:14
creates a lot of rustic images- very nice!
Feb 14, 2017 @ 09:54:56
Oh that was a vivid picture…
Feb 14, 2017 @ 09:51:10
Oh I like the idea of ghost town 🙂 your verse leaves much food for thought!❤️
Feb 15, 2017 @ 11:15:35
I appreciate your comments!