Howard's Coal Mine

 

the mountain women in Dante have houses side by side
they reach each other through the windows and lend supplies
there is a strident echo in the mining town
where too many men raise voices & fists
and the children are bred like saplings
into an ageless sigh of women

 

there are generations of winding sheets that wrap
the women in bandages of love and a thin gauze
shades their young vision into acceptance

and always - the children - thick as glue, watch
through a black static of air -

too few men are gentled
for the knowledge of poison gas
and cave - ins linger too close
judgment day too white to be real
there is an exhaustion in the darkness
that paints men black

Reviews

[zainul]

I became very sad to see how the miners in South Africa were shot and killed in TV news recently.The miners were demanding pay rise for their survival.
Men were painted red too.
Though the painful and tragic event did not happen in Howard's Coal Mine ,I
could imagine how slavery brought freedom through death through this amazing piece .

[Phibby Venable]

thank you so much for your comments and understanding, zainut. my heart and prayers go out to the miners in south africa.

[zainul]

Thank you,my dear friend.
I join my my heart and prayers for the miners in South Africa with you.
May their lives get peace in death!

[zainul]

Love the poem dedicated to the people who are painted black
Amazing write.

[Michael G.]

Only one who has lived "up on the mountain," understands life in it's valley floors. The mines may be a reason, but the life is an outcome, too.

Well, and quietly told.

[W.k.kortas]

It's a harsh reality, yet you have painted it with a gossamer whisper.

[Ken Simm.]

Now you know I am going to empathise with this. And I do because of the remarkable way in which it is written.

[Emily B]

whole generations of men and women, living in the same small houses, sharing what they can

oh, Phibby . . .

[Donald Meikle]

Above the ground I have seen Wales West Virginia and Tennessee. Wales is by far the most beautiful. Below the ground is probably where I'll end up. There's always an urn for ashes though.
You have painted a bleak picture of a coal mining town and not missed a brush stroke.

[Chris]

When your life is all you know...

its YOUR life.

[Ed Hart]

slaves...men, women, children...bleak, black...slavery is slavery

[Samuel Dickens]

A bleak picture of a difficult existence. Perhaps the cruel conditions of the mines that offer a paycheck in trade for diseased lungs or death by asphyxiation cause men to falter. Until they invent robots that mine coal, I guess people will continue to suffer.