Into the bowels of the earth we descend
Down into the pit of hell
Crawling on hands and knees to mine
This precious fuel they call coal
Now Petey and I we are almost men
He is ten and I'm eleven
Been working here, down this mine
These last two years and month now
Mum is counting on us as men
Since Dad died from consumption
Coughed every night, spat out blood
Now gone to be with Jesus
The work is hard, it's hot down here
To work by flickering candlelight
The dust so thick, you always taste it
It makes you cough and splutter
We've almost reached the coal face
When I can hear some rumbling
I turned my head to speak to Petey
When the world collapsed around me
I don't know how long I lay there
When sense returned to me
By the flickering light I could see
The roof caved in behind me
Now I don't know if Petey was safe
Or if Petey was buried under
But what I knew and the news was bad
This was a miner's worst nightmare
Not a breeze came through, no fresh air
The tunnel tightly sealed
I think I knew deep in my heart
My bones would find rest here
Time passed, don't know how long
The candle burned away
The last light my eyes did see
Then blackness all around
I had seen night and I'd seen black
But never before black like this
The silence too was deafening
A tear squeezed from my eye
I cannot cry, I am a man
But the tears slid down my cheeks
I told myself for Mum I cried
What will become of her
The air so stale, tis hard to breathe
My eyelids heavy, drooping
Slowly I drift off to sleep
Tomorrow I'll awake in heaven
Comments (9)
Since Dad died from consumption
Coughed every night, spat out blood
Now gone to be with Jesus
Excellent write Steve...I lost my dear old Grandad to consumption...He was 57 yrs old...He worked in an iron ore mine from the day he left school...He went on a push bike every morning to that hell hole...Thank you for sharing.
My maternal family were Welsh miners, so raised 10 miles from London, yet in a mining community, really opened my eyes, and shocked me that we had never been told....but like you, I write about the time before, that still effects us today....and one local newspaper shocked me when said they would hold back a poem, in case it upset local miners....more likely the mine owner.
A wonderful touching tribute Steve.....Loved it....Kathy