Honorable Mention!!

I'm surprised, truly. I didn't think my poem was all that great, but it earned an Honorable Mention, and since they only give 1st place and one HM in each category, that's pretty good!

So now I'm being brave and posting the poem for your enjoyment. Please be gentle.

First, the photo and a little context. This is a picture of a smelter and its smoke stacks that used to stand in Murray, UT. The smelter was torn down years and years ago, leaving only the stacks. It took at least a year of wrangling for the city to be able to take the stacks down. They were crumbling and full of pollutants that needed to be managed, but there was opposition, too, from people who saw them as a symbol of Murray, a part of history that needed to be preserved, etc. They eventually came down, and now there's a TRAX station (commuter train) and a state-of-the-art hospital in the area where the smelter used to be.

And now the poem. Like I said, please be gentle....

Progress

Against the back drop
Of the pristine Wasatch Mountains
Murray’s smoke stacks
Pierce the sky
Concrete spires in the Church of Progress
Now mostly forgotten relics of a bygone era
Once industrious, belching acrid smoke into the atmosphere
Producing our progress
Devil’s horns marking our time
And our exploitation of this precious land
Now silent; watchful
Now gone; forgotten
We know better
Or do we?

Progress at a price
Paid by our planet
Paid by our community
Do you know your neighbors?
Do they care for you?
And you for them?
“Preserve the past”
Some say.
“Hold on to our history.”
“Make room for newer, bigger, better”
Say others
In the end, the stacks live no more.
Progress
And we are as isolated as our snowy mountain peaks.