Gold King Mine, Silverton, Colorado, 2015
Once there were Midas-men who came to this place
To dig for gold. They dug out their treasure,
Then abandoned the mine on a hillside, laced
Water with sulfur and mercury, a measure
So deadly that all the fish in the river died.
Agencies warned of disaster, but owners feared
Loss of income from tourists, so workers tried
To stem the flow of poison, but, where
Water pooled stagnant with sulfide
And the mine leaked yellow effluent,
Instead they released the killing tide
Into the creek the miners called Cement,
And citrine and saffron water flowed
Into the Rio de las Animas Perditas,
Turning the blue river of fish to gold.
Had they seen the end of what they gave us,
Bones of old miners dancing in their graves
Would still bequeath to us this gold of fools,
Crying “If we hadn’t taken it someone else would have,”
Flowing miles down the River of Lost Souls.
—
Deborah Fleming’s nonfiction collection Resurrection of the Wild won the 2020 PEN-America Art of the Essay Award. Her second nonfiction collection Ghosts of Old Forests will be published in 2025. She has also published one novel, five poetry books, four volumes of scholarship, and stories, poems, and essays in many journals. Three of her poems were nominated for Pushcart Prizes. For two decades she served as editor and director of the Ashland Poetry Press.
