The Door To Hell Poem by Daya Nandan

The door to hell is one of the many popular famous nicknames given to,
The fiery Darvaza Crater in Turkmenistan that you would never want to fall into,
Thought to be a substantial oil field sight by soviet petroleum geologists in 1971,
Who set up a drilling rig and operations to see the prize they thought they won,

The ground beneath the rig and camp collapsed into a crater and disappeared,
They had discovered a natural gas site, the spread of methane gas was feared,
They lit the crate on fire to convert the methane gas into carbon dioxide,
And made an estimate of several weeks to wait and see if the fire had died,

It has been more than 44 years and yet the fire still burns strongly today,
For the supply of methane gas within it is enough to keep it burning each day,
It is a blazing crater more than 60 meters in diameter and 20 meters deep,
With scorching flames within that burn so brightly and have yet to sleep,

The carbon dioxide pollutes but then again methane is about 20 times worse,
Hence, the crater was lit gas to prevent a much bigger environmental curse,
Located in near the Derweze village in middle of the Karakum desert land,
A destination worth visiting despite the long journey through the desert sand.