POEM OF THE DAY

A life blood, and a mainstay, A livelihood, the only way...

A lad at heart, a boy in soul, And early start, to dig for coal. The slam of steel, light fades away, things just got real, he starts to pray. A trembling jaw, two legs aquiver. A kid no more, time to deliver. A cranking cage, descending deep. A grafter’s wage, he’s made the leap. And at the face, Pick tight he holds. At this dank place, there’s jet black gold. The boy replaced, he’s hardened so. Cutting the face, deep down below. A man he’s now, despite his age. By sweat of brow, he earns his wage.

The hardest way, where day is night. He makes his hay, by Davey’s light. But humour and, a bond like kin. with folk so grand, who took him in. As if their own, each had his back. So surely shielded from the flack.

Til day’s at end, a steel gate drones Then cage ascends, he’s heading home.