The Bell Tower by Taylor Graham
THE BELL TOWER Homely, unpretentious, local color – the old Gold Rush tower is symbol of our town. It boosts the tourist trade, standing tall, four-square with one toe in the westbound lane. Almost as famous as the noosed effigy that hangs from an old façade a little farther west. Both part of the town’s history: the hanged man a reminder of what happened when lynching wasn’t on the judge’s docket; the fire-alarm bell, a warning that towns are flammable. Main Street burned three times in one year . Three, like the girls lured away from the tower – now a high school meeting-place; all three girls found murdered in the forest. And still, the bell tower is voice and heart of our town, a rendezvous everybody knows; a stage for civic celebrations. Tonight , let’s read our poems under its hanging bell, for those murdered girls; for the past no bronze bell can call back. Taylor Graham is a volunteer search-and-rescue dog handler in the Sierra Ne...