Centralia

music and lyrics by Mark Brut

It’s a clear June morning spackled on the sky
As the smoke and embers burn my eyes
I’ve lived in this town for forty-three years
And it has touched upon my darkest fears
Old Centralia I don’t want to believe
And I will never be the last to leave

Central Pennsylvania, coal mining region
You can see it on my daddy’s rugged hands
Pottsville to Sunbury, Highway 61
Many generations have mined this land
Little did we know that our judgment day was through
After that fateful day in 1962

The fire started in a garbage dump in an open coal seam
They told us it was under control
Several months later they said it wasn’t gone
Had to dig the boreholes to monitor the burn
They dug the trenches in 1969
Should have ended it then but the funding wasn’t there

By this time we had to face a new reality
Our town was burning from underground and families begin to leave
1997 Population 44
Highway 61 is closed, better take the detour
The remaining homes were bought up by the state
No plans to fight this fire now, it’s already too late

Forty years later the town still stands
But silent as a ghost, you won’t find it on a map
Old Centralia remains in my soul now
Like the smoke that poured out of the ground
Now there’s nothing as far as you can see
Maybe we’d still be here if they’d done things differently

They told us that the fires were out
They told us that the fires were out
They told us that the fires were out

© Mark Brut 2005 - all rights reserved