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I Cast My Lot

I Cast My Lot Donald Askins I cast my lot in these mountains many lives ago: Esserville’s coke ovens greeted my coming, Their fiery mouths lighting the low rain clouds, Their reflected glow imbuing the scene with a hellish aspect— A neophyte’s ill-starred introduction to coal country. I cast my lot and bought the fight in 1968 : D-9 dozers and frontend loaders raping the earth And spoiling what’s left; draglines taking the mountaintops, Dumping them in valley fills that poison the water And kill the streams, rivers, lakes and ponds. I cast my lot and fought the fight: Our grassroots groups in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, And West Virginia marched on Washington r Th ough the years, until a strip-mining bill was won, we thought, With aoc , stream bue ff r zones, stricter permitting requirements. I cast my lot and lost the fight: The bureaucrats, the politicians, the moneyed interests They combined to undermine every provision in the bill: Enforcement was a farce, a shamed-face disgrace To the good people who fought to save our Appalachia intact. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Appalachian Review University of North Carolina Press

I Cast My Lot

Appalachian Review , Volume 37 (1) – Jan 24, 2009

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Publisher
University of North Carolina Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Berea College.
ISSN
1940-5081

Abstract

Donald Askins I cast my lot in these mountains many lives ago: Esserville’s coke ovens greeted my coming, Their fiery mouths lighting the low rain clouds, Their reflected glow imbuing the scene with a hellish aspect— A neophyte’s ill-starred introduction to coal country. I cast my lot and bought the fight in 1968 : D-9 dozers and frontend loaders raping the earth And spoiling what’s left; draglines taking the mountaintops, Dumping them in valley fills that poison the water And kill the streams, rivers, lakes and ponds. I cast my lot and fought the fight: Our grassroots groups in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, And West Virginia marched on Washington r Th ough the years, until a strip-mining bill was won, we thought, With aoc , stream bue ff r zones, stricter permitting requirements. I cast my lot and lost the fight: The bureaucrats, the politicians, the moneyed interests They combined to undermine every provision in the bill: Enforcement was a farce, a shamed-face disgrace To the good people who fought to save our Appalachia intact.

Journal

Appalachian ReviewUniversity of North Carolina Press

Published: Jan 24, 2009

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