At fourteen years old, he went down the mine <br /> Like his Dad before him, it was his time <br />He was issued, with a hat and a lamp <br /> Way below ground its hot and its damp <br /> <br />Drilling the coal face eight hours a day <br />Coming home black, with a pittance of pay <br />Muscles aching from squatting so low <br />Following the coal seam a mile below <br /> <br /> A billy of tea, bread an some cheese <br />Coal dust in lungs it makes a man sneeze <br />Old miners cough blood, there lungs are shot <br />More tea here son, I'll empty the pot <br /> <br />I look at these men, a life underground <br />The drill and the shovels, are the only sound <br />I looked in there eyes, through a Davy lamps gleam <br />A cage dead canary has made a man scream <br /> <br />Coal gas has entered through a crack in the wall <br />All it needs is a spark, that's the end of us all <br />The shafts ventilated, there's no need to fear <br />We'll be o.k. when we get the all clear <br /> <br />These men are as hard, as the coal i belive <br />Coal wagons full! come on lads heave! <br />The pit ponies are blind but they know every stride <br />When a wagon breaks loose they've got nowhere to hide <br /> <br />A pit prop it breaks leaving trapped men below <br />Tons of rock fall, we've got to dig slow <br />We'll prop as we go, its our only way out <br />I think I'm done for i, heard a man shout <br /> <br />The workings came down, with a thunderous roar <br />I never saw that boy any more <br />That night in my bed when I hit the sack <br />That's when a miner's eyes cry black!<br /><br />Bob Gibson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/eyes-cry-black/
