July 21, 1976 (I was 31)
Touring Soudan Underground Iron Mine
Every green smile
pulled from under
the silly hard hats
issued at the entrance
tells the embarrassing truth
that we nineteen crammed
into this rumbling shovel bucket
on a cable to plummet
thirty-two hundred feet
through greenstone rock
and red vein ore
might ride this angle
all the way
to the darkest chamber
of this pyramid
to join with Julius
and his demon miners
screaming deaf from diamond bits
and pressure changes
five hundred forty fathoms
beneath an iron sea.
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