Virginia Mine Explosion

Long, sad wail of the emergency siren

signals the disaster's beginnings;

chills the heart  of every miner's kin.

 

The community gathers at the mine entry.

They are told:

a methane explosion

has injured one man;

left eight miners trapped underground.

 

On each watcher's face

The Question---

"is one of the trapped miners,

my miner?"

 

The news passes through the crowd,

---Father, husband, brother, son---

As each name is called,

the fear is claimed.

Heart's agony shines in the eyes;

     tears,

black as the coal

their men died for.

Reviews

[therisa]

The impact of this poem is, all the more greater, given how the 30+ Chilean miners survived their ordeal and these miners didn't. And for what, a piece of carbon to burn and pollute the environment with. Caring not, where the toxic fumes are carried by the winds, several thousand kilometres away. Or how dangerous the job is, as miners leave the mines, with their lung coated in black.

[...]

. a piercing pain finds its place in your sensitive words ... and so true ... what's lost in the mines ... is way, way, way more than what is gained ... a gut-wrenching read ...