Soot Poems

We live in a town with soot
coating everything lightly and unobserved
the small shops that close down show it
on storefront windows where kids draw
dream images with a finger
under awnings pornographic glyphs
keep adolescent desires for years
in the milky windows of unsuccess
not purged by even reflections of spring

pink blossoms in soaped glass
what does that do to a mind

you only recognize years later
the accumulation on a fingertip
dragged across a surface
be it wood or metal or dream or even a leaf
from a bush in your backyard
for a leaf is the dream of a platter
as your voice was once your feelings
(remember that?)
even love leaves a sort of soot
from the original fires it was
and deployed

I talk of a real steel mill here
acidulous town people come in great waves
boats from Europe trains from the deep South
to lose their lungs so slowly it was almost a religion
for there was a great faith to stand still
to see the body an expendable thing
and no union of workers allowed
but the barefoot house filled up
with lush heft sometimes even baubles
children…