Memoria

everyone’s teeth are broken but people keep chewing rocks. everyone’s stomachs are empty but people keep drinking gasoline.   Boy in a Closed Mill Town by Zackary Lavoie Rural Maine was once a hotbed for Mill Towns. Entire communities were built around mills, offering a promise of wealth and stability. Unfortunately, most of these mills were eventually closed and torn down, leaving the towns once centred around them helpless. Many families felt the destructive impact of the closings. Poverty, drug addiction, depression, and many, many other difficult scenarios soon followed. This poem explores the impact on the relationship between a father and son in a closed mill town. Zack Lavoie graduated from the University of Maine at Farmington and is the author of the chapbook UPHEAVALS (Pond Bench Press). He was awarded the 2017 Alice James Books Director's Chair Fellowship in Farmington, Maine and is the winner of the Franklin & Somerset County Poetry Competition.  works as an EFL editor