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Contests : Margaret Reid Poetry Contest : Past Winners : 2008 : Most Highly Commended
COAL DUST STREET
And he saw it now and then
the lamp lit row of houses that
stretched beyond the eye
houses where men who dug black
slept and drank when they could
ageless cobbles pried on men
who fought in the street
over want, women and work
while little men sons
played foolish games of childhood
daughter women with prams
mothered their plastic dolls
and the wives gossiped about
young Sally who had a belly
by John Stout the butcher boy
the reverend Ellis knew
all the stories and chapters
of life in this coal dust street
he birthed them baptised them
married and buried them
and the street was quiet
no vehement voices tonight
as the deed of death
slipped over the cobbles
and gripped a sleeping soul
This poem won a Most Highly Commended award in the 2008 Margaret Reid Poetry Contest sponsored by Tom Howard Books. Author George Carle received a $100 award. Winning Writers assists this contest. Copyright is reserved to the author.
About George Carle
I am a family doctor who lives in a small highland village called Tighnabruaich on the west coast of Scotland. I have published poems in a number of magazines and written four poetry books. I believe like Thomas Hardy that poetry should be written "charged with emotion".
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