Today folk amble along mine tracks <br />Where once tin was hard hauled. <br />Inclines were handled by boys, blackened <br />With pit dust, bare armed, mauled <br />By overfilled trucks. Bal-maidens worked <br />Here too, loading ore. Fine young <br />Females, hair capped, their laughter shirking <br />The rules. Slack was, among <br />Such tender crews not allowed, they sang <br />Though, mining ballards, loudly. <br />As shovel struck ore, these tracks just rang <br />With young voices, as, proud <br />Of their Cornishness, they kept in line. <br />Silent now, old mine tracks <br />Still ring with lost childhood, and some nights <br />We hear singing come back.<br /><br />Fay Slimm<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/along-these-lines-2/
