Human ants
crawling burrowing deeper.
Clawing rock walls with iron
fingers, black butiminous bowels.
No light here, above above above.
Carbon monoxide in, oxygen out
dissipating somehow, somewhere
seeping upwards to all the bright
day people; children, mothers, wives.
We know this darkness
in our blood,10,20,30 years.
Don't wake the dying sleep.
Daily our graves dug.
Now let us rest while others
tremble, who buried
us prematurely. Our lives
spent, stocks exchanged,
safety sacrificed
for another moment or two
of light.
(Poem written in memory of miner's lost in W. VA Jan.2006.)
Cheryl Lynn Moyer Peele
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-dying-sleep/
