Primitive Methodism

  Driving interstate 81 by Frackville



you might notice the long lines in the rock



on the flat walls to your right, those lines,



you might ask me, what are those lines?



I’d have to explain how they drill these



veins into the rock, how they fill these



rocks with dynamite, how they will these



mountains into molehills and brush them



off their coats God bless the borough of



Frackville God bless Schuylkill county.



 



My great grandfather made those lines



sitting at his desk with pencils with no



erasers eating sauerkraut and potatoes



in a place that prided itself on not being



undermined God bless the borough of



Frackville God bless Schuylkill county.



 



I have come here to take credit for this-



look his math stands correct forever in rock-



proceed without caution ungrateful out of staters.



I have come here to take credit for every bid



in pinochle, son who learned to park six inches



from the curb, line of dynamite that went right.



I have come here to take credit if you would



look around you and see the world he has 



built and thank me for he is not here now.  



I have come here to take what is due to one



who like anthracite has been sunk buried



pressed to make fuel like grapes to wine.



I have come here to be Dionysus with vine in



one hand coal in the other and you maenad



follow me into this mine like a mangy mule.



I have come here to show you the bottom of



the mine which mules do not leave until shot



which my family left three generations ago.



I have come riding on a mule today with my



great grandfather walking it as an American



nativity pageant heading for Philadelphia.



I have his life insurance evaluation his calipers



from Frackville Service Equipment Corporation



his Pottsville Explosive comb case to show you.



I will show you no more, for you need to look for



his autograph. God bless the borough of



Frackville God bless Schuylkill county.