Poems of the Week

Blankenship of State

by Chris O’Carroll

In the Upper Big Branch mine explosion,
Twenty-nine West Virginians died.
Blankenship had been running a death trap,
So the judge gave him one year inside.

Now Don’s out and he’s running for Senate,
Hoping coal country families decide
To vote for a mine boss whose millions
Piled up while the twenty-nine died.