New Classic Poems – Contemporary Verse That Rhymes
New Classic Poems – Contemporary Verse That Rhymes
New Classic Poems – Contemporary Verse That Rhymes
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<strong>New</strong> <strong>Classic</strong> <strong>Poems</strong><br />
Then and Now<br />
The Mile of Gold<br />
Neil Harding McAlister<br />
My wife and I came to this northern town<br />
As Displaced Persons after World War Two.<br />
Our country had been wrecked, our dreams shot down.<br />
We turned our backs on everything we knew.<br />
So beautiful was Anna! I, her man,<br />
Was tall and strong, and proud that she loved me.<br />
This new land would fulfill young lovers’ plans<br />
For us and for our children yet to be.<br />
In rocks of Kirkland Lake we drilled deep roots.<br />
I got a good job working in a mine<br />
Where dank and gloomy labyrinths we’d loot<br />
To prize out all the gold that we could find.<br />
And fate we cheated in a hundred ways<br />
As rock bursts, floods and cave-ins we survived.<br />
To see a sunset after sunless days<br />
Had taught us what it meant to be alive.<br />
Cold evenings at the hockey rink we’d spend<br />
In bloody combat underneath the stars;<br />
But we were always buddies once again<br />
When, laughing, we would head back to the bars.<br />
The main street shops had all the latest styles,<br />
And every kind of luxury they sold.<br />
On weekends folks would drive a hundred miles<br />
To do their shopping on the Mile of Gold.<br />
One time I damned near beat a man to death<br />
Who looked upon my wife with lustful eyes.<br />
A man must fight for what he loves the best,<br />
And who would steal it from him, he’ll despise.<br />
Then cancer took my Anna in her prime.<br />
No other woman ever filled her place.<br />
I carried on alone. From time to time,<br />
I still imagine I can see her face.<br />
When he had finished school, our son left home<br />
To look for work in offices down south.<br />
He found a better life than I have known <strong>–</strong><br />
A cushy job, a boat, a fancy house.<br />
So one by one, the children left this place<br />
To seek their fortunes where they could be found;<br />
As years went by, there scarce remained a trace<br />
Of fortunes that once lay beneath the ground.<br />
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