Davey lamps shine

Davey lamps shine

Beacons of hope

A foundation of light

A challenge to the darkness

A floating cloud

Of coal dust,

A glister in the glow

The shadows of tired miners

Crouching low

In a narrow seam

No more than three feet high

Where no man

Should linger

There is only the safety of light

To bring them home

The crash of steel on stone

One spark is all it takes

There are no canaries

Take heed

Of the flame

Burning white

Muscle and sinew

Flesh and blood

Young men

Lost too soon

Sirens bleed into the night

Broken lives, widowed wives

Wailing at the pithead

Waiting for the headcount

Bringing out the dead

Plague doctors

Wearing gas masks

What has gone is more than…

Futures lost

Shaped by grieving histories

A community of recollections

Hewed by loss

Tempered by hardship

A common purpose

Nameless souls

Honoured in falling

Given short shrift

When restitution

Is an environmentalist’s

Evolutionary dream