A Bitter Sweet Tragedy
"A Bitter Sweet Tragedy"
It was a typical mid-morning, on January 15 1919, on Keany Square in
north Beantown, you could hear the hooves of horses clopping up and down.
Above the hustle and bustle normally abound, came a deep throated
resonating and horrifying sound.
It grew louder and louder and the next thing they heard, sounded like
slinging turtles. "How could it be? That's absurd!"
Locked in disbelief, they started to cry, "Run, run, run, before you die!
A tank filled with blackstrap molasses had burst at the seams, spewing
two million gallons of black sticky streams.
A massive tide towering 40 feet high swallowed up man and beast like
a spider would a fly.
Some were entombed while still alive, other held on praying for help
to arrive.
When the tide subsided and finished its run, 150 were injured and 20
more lives were good and done.
Lives were lost, lessons learned, settlements were paid but never earned.
And so the story ends with one though to attend.
It is the bitter not the sweet that gets you in the end.
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