Human ants <br />crawling burrowing deeper. <br />Clawing rock walls with iron <br />fingers, black butiminous bowels. <br />No light here, above above above. <br />Carbon monoxide in, oxygen out <br />dissipating somehow, somewhere <br />seeping upwards to all the bright <br />day people; children, mothers, wives. <br /> <br />We know this darkness <br />in our blood,10,20,30 years. <br />Don't wake the dying sleep. <br />Daily our graves dug. <br /> <br />Now let us rest while others <br />tremble, who buried <br />us prematurely. Our lives <br />spent, stocks exchanged, <br /> <br />safety sacrificed <br />for another moment or two <br />of light. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />(Poem written in memory of miner's lost in W. VA Jan.2006.)<br /><br />Cheryl Lynn Moyer Peele<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-dying-sleep/
