Aberfan

an awful true tale

Aberfan: I hear weeping in their Welsh lilt
of the shocked reporter who'll stun their world,
the forty-four adults, who that day were killed,
and one hundred sixteen children, had not heard,

the slithering black tidal wave of slurry
smear its first prey of Hafod Tanglwys Uchaf,
on its way to Pantglas Junior School, a blurry
monster to kill children the school and its staff...

Nineteen sixty-six. A million ton of coal waste,
a wave forty-feet high rushed down a mountainside,
to Merthyr Vale mine destroying all in its haste
and from that day the Vale's eyes, have not dried.

Is there anything sadder than this? I think
No... I couldn't have coped, not even with strong drink...