The Sand Hill Review               http://www.sandhillreview.org 2011

Coal is the color of sorrow

for the West Virginia miners & families, January 2006

The bells of Sago Baptist peal their joy:

Twelve miners have been found alive – they’ll show

Their faces soon, above the surface. Boy

To man, a trapped soul ages fast – no

Room for adolescence here, where fear

Hides behind the pride of generations.

Grandpa mined these hills, now others mirror

His tale of dark mornings, the simple action

Of tucking lunch bucket under arm.

But then families hear the truth and every dread

Turns real, when words of death begin to swarm

As lumps of grief above the once-raised heads.

No songs of praise, no jubilation lasting.

Spirits, once fed with prayer, now turn to fasting.

Janice Dabney