INVERSION, 1

1890: All day longthe smoke arises from the worksstretches across the valleyno higher than the towna still, calm sea, deep, murky Carriages have to be driven slowlytrolley cars have to creep workers lose their waymany people bleed from their nosessome vomit in the streetsinversion layerinvisible handgodlike transparentpalm fingers thumb heavy with valueholding the smoke downon the flayed valley

ORESCAPE

In the copper areaslopes gridironed by railway trackssteel hoist frames markthe course of the greater veinsmonotonous slopesoccasional shaft housesinnumerable pits and trenchesheaps of waste everywhereOnly by digging through the veneerof gravel-like debriscan the limits of the intrusive massesbe established

MODERNITY

Like the hand guiding enlargingdemand for copper wire1882: Edison installed his first electrical generating and distribution system27-ton “Jumbo” dynamo heavy copper bars and brass disksspinning around a magnetic corenearly 20 miles of thick copper wiresthreaded through underground conduitsclean modern metalextruded into arteriesof Power and Light1902: 21,920 miles of electrified streetcarswith copper-coiled electric motors

fed by copper wires1925: Bell Telephone had bought morethan seven hundred million pounds of copperfor its nationwide phone networkvast horizontal ever spreadingvoltage tree whose roots are herecopper bound with sulfuriron and arsenicthe veins nearly verticala depth of over one mileascending to be purifiedin airborne drifts of filth

RAILROADS, 1

Steel shadowsof the hand’s long armextended from Bostonoak-chambered cranium on Beacon HillOfficers of the Copper Mining Co.H. H. Rogers (Standard Oil)John D. RyanF. P. Addicks

C. F. Kelleymoney-muscledand along rights of waythousands of milesof strung-wire gangliathe telegraphclean modern copper

Directors of the Copper Mining Co.William Rockefeller (Standard Oil)J. E. JudsonE. C. BogertGeorge H. ChurchWilliam. L. Bulldash-dot synapsestransmit back and forthcapital’s instructionsextraction’s hungers

and fulfillmentsManagers of the Copper Mining Co. 1883-1920Marcus Daly (Owner)William ScallonJohn D. RyanCornelius F. Kelley

LABOR, 1

The visible handsaccounted over decadesgrimed oiled and bruisedbone tendon muscle whose grips and motionsthousands a secondon power-drill pick shovellever pulley knurled wheelare melted together fusedin the banks’ cold convertersbecome platonic equivalent fungibleas particles of lightor fine soota bloodstream of numbersin the financial firmamentvalue nimbusflowing always east

LABOR, 2

Hard-rock miners firstdrawn organized positionedraised or flattenedlike grimy filingsby profit’s magnetic fieldfrom Canada and MexicoCornwall, Ireland, WalesAustria, Italy, NorwayCroatia, Montenegro, Serbia Lebanon, Syriaand China (these thenexpelled, boycotted, abused)go deeper year by yearbecoming helmet mengoggled, cylinders on their backsin their Draeger breathersmile-down divers in rockfollow veins and outcropsswimming through poison gas

to repair tunnels and shaftsor maskless working rock drillsthey breathe freelysurface air pushed downby gigantic pumpsthudding like heartsmachine wind branchesthrough hollow arteriescirculating alsothe silica microgrit that wears their lungs away

LABOR, 3

crushedasphyxiatedpoisoneddrownedroastedincineratedburied aliveto die of thirstbrought upunrecognizable

LABOR, 4

Venus Alleybehind the Dumas Brothelwith its three storiesskylights and large parlor roomsthe alley lined with “cribs”thin wooden wallsjust large enough for a beda white light bulbover each entranceThe women in brightly coloredshort-skirted dressesworking at their stationsat times under smoke weightpressed helpless heaving down on sweaty sheetsgasping in more fouledspiritus clenching breathinto rasped exorcism

RAILROADS, 2

Shadows of the hand’s fingersrail spurs and branch lineslumber cars from the northern hillsstacked and tiedwith amputated forestsore cars from the pit headspiled with metal shatterready for combustionroll to the smelterson steel and grassless mudthrough stolen air

INVERSION, 2

From up the first brick stacksor from “heap roasting”brimstone smokehell’s heavy atmospherepushed down on the livingfrom aboveby the invisible hand

as the ore smolderslike dragon intestines in open heaps layered between timberwhole city blocks long

1891, January to March:out of 246 deathsabout 71 percent pulmonarylung abscess, chronic bronchitisasthma, croup, pneumoniaminers 25% of male deadaverage age at death: 38

arsenic, fluoridespenetrate the eyessulfur dioxideburns away the lungs the heart’s furled wingsin the innocentthe old the exhaustedthe underground men

–died late at night or in the early hours –had complained for some timeabout ‘feeling poorly’ –had been diagnosed with a coldor ‘consumption’

while the damnable in mansionsabove the smoke-seabreathe air as clean as lace

GAGGED

Seeping through windowsillsfloorboards ventilatorseven keyholessulfur- and fluoride-laden filling the schoolhouseThe children hidetheir heads in their armstie handkerchiefs over their facestry to take refuge under desks

hands over their mouthstheir questions their fearevery cough a raw shack door slammed against chokinglost village of children’s breathPeering through the glooma rancher’s grandson points at the roaringsmokestackin the distance“You think it’ll do thatuntil it makes us all die?”

SMOkE FARM

Deer Lodge ValleyBielenberg Ranchautumn 1902more than 1,000 head of cattle800 sheep, 20 horsesgrazing undera steady stream of stinking yellow smokesulfur centipedesbristling with wire feetcrawl down their long throatsclaws tearing their alveoliwith each breathgray metal white metalstatic disruptingtheir cells’ conversenerves transmit spasmhearts falter and seizebodies founderin dusted fall grass

INVERSION, 3

the mines of Butte somehowcarved out of the surrounding rockas a single blocklifted up inverted and set back downa mile high at its tallest pointthe resulting structure ofstone steel and wood twice as big as the world’slargest skyscrapersnearly two miles thick at its baseforest-maze of hollow branchesghost world-treeempty necropolisinside a vast grave markerfor the smoke-strangledand rock-crushed dead

REDuCTION

Replacing the heapsreverberatory furnacescobra-hoodedfeed molten mattesto the ranked converterswhere fiery air forced throughburns off impuritiesas exhaled breathiron eggs hooped and bolted mounted like cannons or mortarsalembics of modernitydwarfing the workmensweaty in rag maskswho serve them

STACkS

fingers of black brick two hundred feet highgravers with hollow tinesin parallel incise the flat skyetch chiaroscurowith sulfuric acid

Each new setreaches taller300 feetmanifesting the faiththat sin will dissipateon the windas we escape upwardfrom a soiled worldinto the heavens

while down-plume the corngoes on shrivelingthe cattle bloating on their sidesthe pasture turning brownthe old lungs drowning

Finally the great Washoe stacksteel and brick 585 feet highsurrounded bya twenty-unit bankof electrical precipitatorseach a mere ten storiescapture the metal-sootdrop it into hopperstracks right under the unitsrailcars loaded with dustrich in copper, gold, and silver

RESIDuE

left when the Washoeshut down in 1980185 million cubic yardsof toxic tailings250 thousand cubic yardsof captured metal dustsoon afterchildren in nearby Mill Creekfound to have dangerouslevels of arsenic in their urineall Mill Creek residentsevacuated and relocatedhouses bulldozedsoil leveled and stripped offtransportedhidden

–Adam Cornford