Fifty Bells In Lac-Megantic

fifty bells in lac-megantic

one for every person lost

a rail disaster so tragic

toll out the names and the cost

seventy-two tankers wait

above the sleepy québec town

no crew aboard to watch the freight

silent wheels start rolling down

the darkened train speeds downhill

tankers filled with light crude oil

it runs off the rails at rue laval

fireballs rise and smoking, roil

lac-megantic is afire

a wall of flame roars through town

claiming lives in the growing pyre

’til the musi-café crumbles down

local people flee in terror

train cars strewn about like toys

the sleeping engineer in error

the heat the flames the smoke the noise

in the aftermath a province grieves

so many young among the dead

the railway defers; survivors seethe

oil pollutes the watershed

lac-megantic used to be

a scenic summer tourist town

before the tanker train rolled free

and fifty mournful bells tolled out

~e