From West Virginia

                                     Highway 611

The clouds of dawn weigh
       thick in the heights,
    misting the pre-hours to dawn
                             at Bartlick Chapel.

The road whines the miles to Haysi;
       and the grind of a coal truck,
            double-clutching
       through eighteen gears,
Bloated with Clinchfield Coal
Troubles my sleep.

And from a corner,
       edged abruptly from the cliff
             three miles from town,
"Walkin' Tall #1"
Became a phantom to the dawn...