by Alan Catlin
Fines for sixteen
hundred violations
of federal regulations:
unsafe working
conditions, bad air
quality, emissions;
the coast of doing
business the Massey
Energy way.
Twenty-nine funerals
for workers killed,
factored in, as well.
Blowing the tops
off mountains equals
progress.
Closed mine pending
investigations of miners'
deaths, plunging stock
prices muddy bottom
line, slow expansion
plans, news reports say.
Alan Catlin's latest chapbook is a long poem, Thou Shalt Not Kill, an updating of Rexroth's seminal poem of the same name. Whereas Rexroth riffs on the abuses of the Eisenhower adminstration, the update observes abuses of power in the previous administration with particular attention to the cynical, criminal behavior towards the Katrina hurricane victims.
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