600 million miles of history, quite a lot of it tragically beautiful:

Ghost Towns of Russia
by Michael Romani

The provocative label of ghost town
Once chased around
Tells the story of another dead town
Across 600 million Russian miles
And the lonely faces that once wore smiles

So many of these towns established for strategy
Then abandoned as unnecessary 
Downgraded in an incipient implosion
These carburetors of the Soviet Union
Collapsed as it did; into mass confusion

Korzunovo in its Artic pageantry 
Lost its step in the place of history
And along with that - most of its citizenry
Headlight beams pierce the morning snow
For those few who have nowhere else to go

Little girls in headbands sit on a bench
Waiting for mercy to bend another inch
For these are lost without mercy; that's a cinch
There in the near audible silence
Where the Red Army once preached its violence

With only a few precious hours of light
The people stranded there endure the Polar nights
This is the grimness of disappearing night
Parting anywhere is nearly always sad
As the exhausted cling to memories once had

It's a tricky question for those who stay
Everyone has their reasons; whispers say
Keeping on in their simple, studied ways
The sun fails to rise beyond the horizon
Soon even the barely lit windows will be gone

(c) August 9, 2018  Michael Romani
All Rights Reserved