Trespassing

Do Not Enter

No Trespassing

If I had obeyed every sign of such wording

All the things I would not have seen

The pictures I wouldn't have taken

The memories that would have never been

Copper Range Railroad engine #29

Never would have felt my presence

Had I not gone on purpose out of bounds

As it resided behind an old copper ore processing plant

Along the Portage in old Hancock town

I climbed aboard and sat right down

One hand on the throttle

The other on the window sill

My wife took my picture

And it's one of my favorites still

Not to mention the ore processing plant itself

Which really didn't need a sign to say keep out

As any sane individual could see it was a danger

As it stood rotten falling down sentinel

Old ore chutes overhead as I walked in

Chains dangling next to each

Daring me to touch one

To see if anything would come out if I did

But I resisted, as there are limits to my curiousity

But I'll never forget the main floor of the large building

A formerly three story vaulted ceiling

Now collapsed onto the floor below

Burying mysterious machinery

Overgrown with green vines and the odd tree

A sight I hadn't seen in real life

I hovered at the periphery

Not bold enough to go inside

The unseen rotten floor taunting my bravery

Other places with signs posted to keep me out:

The old Soo Lines roundhouse in Sault St Marie

Where I saw the blackboard requesting the last one out to shut off the lights

My wife posed amongst the engine pits deep between the rails

As we pictured locomotives steaming quietly

Mechanics tending their every need

A Michigan Central train depot in Mackinaw City

With it's waybills scattered about

Detailing cargo and it's coming and going

Where I sat at a forgotten stationmaster's desk

Reading what came and went during Christmas week in 1953

That random Calumet & Hecla Mining building in Calumet

With it's rusted steam engine powerplant

Cast iron pulley system

Rotten leather and rubber belts

Hanging like meat in an abattoir

From the post and beam frame

Of this forgotten hub of employment

All with their secrets

Of a transportation or industrial past

With relics hidden in plain sight

To be seen

To be touched

To be photographed

And left behind for some other industrial ruins spelunker

I cannot visit these places again

Not for fear of going twice to my own crime scene, no

But for the fact that all the mentioned places are gone now

Engine #29 spirited away to a museum three states away

And all the buildings torn down without much thought

All these places had their own ominous signs

Proclaiming danger or prosecution

But if I had not dared their domains

I'd not be the man I am

Trespassing tentatively upon forgotten dreams