{This is in response to a prompt from What Pegman Saw. This week, the challenge takes us to Pripyat, Ukraine, a small town near the border with Russia, not far from Chernobyl. Thanks for the prompt and thanks for reading!}
The Azure Swimming Pool,
The Pripyat Ferris Wheel:
A jewel in 1970,
A shell in ’86.
This Nuclear City Number Nine,
Some fifty thousand strong,
Attended the needs of Chernobyl,
The safest of power plants.
The city’s shield, a field of red,
Graced by the Peaceful Atom,
Failed to protect. Evacuate
Them all, within two days.
I sit in my car
In this mile of cars,
To outrun a one-day windstorm.
Those poor souls, gone
These thirty years,
Bequeathed their town to ghosts.
Copyright 2018 Andrea LeDew
So very well done. I have to agree with Karen. Using that ferris wheel was perfect to go with your wonderfully sad poem.
Thank you Dale. A place of laughter and fun reduced to a toxic pile of rubble. As our esteemed president would say, “Sad.”
A jewel in 1970,
A shell in ’86. Love this.
The short sentences make this piece shine. Kudos
Thank you. The rhythm worked well with these dates, those of the town’s founding, and of the accident nearby at Chernobyl. I also was tempted to use as my picture a wonderful concrete city sign, with the name of the town (in Cyrillic) and a very upbeat, seventies style font for 1970. Seemed ironic. Numbers also seemed important to the story, as the the Wikipedia article listed off so many items –the number of movie theaters, pools, houses, apartments etc– like some sad inventory.
A moving and thought-provoking piece. I love the picture you selected too. The fragility of the Ferris wheel echoes the fragility of all their good intentions.
Thank you. There is nothing so pathetic as neglected or abandoned toys. Good intentions…with which the road to hell is paved.