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| USS Clairton Coke Works, 2019. Reid R. Frazier/The Allegheny Front |
We barely knew each other
high on our own after-image
overlooking the smoky town
where we began our life together
early in debt and breathing
the ochre air
of the Monongahela Valley
when smoke meant mill jobs
and furniture on credit
for the young and the restless
in an early wave
of a disenchanted
televison generation
coming of age
with graphite on our shoulders
under the Good Housekeeping
Seal of Approval
and channeled for divorce.
