Poetry: did ya ever by John Yamrus

did ya ever

 

hear 

the one 

about the three guys 

who got trapped in a mine? 

 

it happened 

back in the 60s 

in a Pennsylvania coal town, 

 

and 

(like i said) 

there were 3 guys 

trapped in a mine and it 

went on for days and days and 

 

by the 

time it was done, 

there was talk of aliens 

 

and 

cannibalism 

 

and 

just about 

everything else 

you could think of, 

 

including the pope. 

 

a couple 

of years later 

there was even a hit song 

 

that was or wasn’t about it. 

 

i think 

the mine thing

happened back in ’63...

 

the 

same year 

Kennedy was killed. 

 

there’s so many 

unanswered questions there, too, 

 

with 

the whole 

point of the story being 

that no matter what happens, you 

 

never 

really get to 

know the truth. 

 

all 

you can do 

is keep your head down, 

 

and like 

those three guys 

trapped in the cave, 

 

you keep 

your fingers crossed 

 

and hope 

it turns out right 

 

in the end.

John Yamrus has published 39 books. He has also had more than 3,500 poems published in magazines and anthologies around the world. A number of his books and poems are taught in college and university courses. He is widely considered to be a master of minimalism and the neo-noir in modern poetry.  His two most recent books are the memoir THE STREET and a volume of poetry called PEOPLE (AND OTHER BAD IDEAS). Several of his books have also appeared in translation.