Red steel concurs in the end,
Triumphing over pine and moss,
Crushing lichen, centuries old,
Rolled into a river bed of,
Brown recycled concrete and gravel,
Asphalt before covered the bed,
Washed clean by nature's,
Inevitable hand of justice,
Man's triumph here,
Shall withstand the dealings of nature,
Or can any withstand?
Red steel concurs in the end,
Can it? I wonder as I touch,
The already rusting trusses,
Will it? Could it?
© 1976 Carl Erickson
Backstory: In the early summer of 1976, I was working on a book at the UNC student center on the Panorama level facing the mountains. On July 31st, all of us working on the project noticed a very dark cloud centered over the Thompson/ Estes area, as evening fell we found out the exact meaning of that cloud. You can read up on the Big Thompson Flood ('76 - it has happened again since then) here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Thompson_River#1976_flood