If I turn ten.

A short enough poem, set in the point of view of a young child in the industrial revolution working in the coal mines.

In requiem to the hearts I've felt, 

beating in tandem with mine.

I offer a small thanks and my condolences.

It was unfair of life, to cast you such a lot.

Our memories and lives became entwined and lay a foul flavour on my lips.

I knew it could not end well.

"When love and life are fair" they pit us not at the mercy of our minds.

A bittersweet slowdance in the twilight shared by those of use left in the gutters.

Smokestacks towering high over our coal-laden lungs.

The young ones we've lost in service of our queen and country,

lost children's souls released "to dance upon the air" as we never could before.

Tell them that they were loved when they arrive at the gates, 

although we may not have anyone to call our own,

we have our comrades in dust and pain.

The bite of the plague, no more than a flea's length from our heels as we attempt to outrun fate.

No candle burns hot enough to cauterise the wounds of a bleeding heart.

What use is the removal of the rope after the hanging?

No man alive can reinflate lungs made of stone.

"It's delicate and rare" to see a face of kindness shine in from the light at the end of the mines.

To see someone to set us free.

Maybe someday, if I live to be ten, a kind family will whisk me away from here.

To no longer live in fear, to wake to the black sweat, the faces of my friends rotting away as I watch helpless.

If I grow to be a rich man, I'll save them, every single one.

They'll never be alone again.

All our hearts beat as one, down in the caves,

beating as one, working as one, if one of us falls, all will come after.

Reviews

[Zahra]

"It's delicate and rare" to see a face of kindness shine in from the light at the end of the mines.
To see someone to set us free.


very well penned

[GoGo Tamago]

It reminds me of hunger games in some parts of the poem with the coal minds and stuff like that. But other than that it also reminds me of a time where I have taken a field trip in middle school to an actual coal mind it was cool.

[Billy Van]

That's what I'm talking about. Great job. You are indeed a poet.

[TheLoversCheat]

I'll admit this made me blink back tears, knowing how this boy felt during the revolution and how the work was harsh in everyway makes you think about how it is today.
Love the poem in every letter :) Good Job.

[Emily]

Vary nice wording!
Well done!!