A coalmine story , when I was a coal miner a true story.
Pit canteen - dinner - mug of tea
Chatting - pit banter
Pop in to shop - for chewing backer
A tin of snuff - last cigaret - till we ride the pit
From the start of the shift - once we walk on to The Cage
Our life's - in danger
Threatened - from the beginning
Should you not - pack an ounce of fear
Your just not right in the head! The Pit is lethal!
Danger - every step we take! Always - we are conchies - of that!
From the pit canteen - pit shop to the bathhouse
Strip off - one last cigarette - conversions - jokes - pit banter
Put on our orange overalls - leather - steel - cap boots - white helmets
Fill our dudlys* with water - hope it will see us through the shift
We walk across the pit yard - to the lamp cabin
From the lamp cabin - to the winding house
Cracking , jokes - we go across - the pit yard
Towards our fates
The sun shines above us
As if the sun is - pitying us?
As if like the sun knows - what awaits us down - there - below - her rays
Shining - down - worming us - a temptress - is the sun!
Tempting us - to turn round - head away - from where - we're heading
From where we were a going to - from - what we were going too!
To where the sun had not shone down upon - hundreds of thousands of
Years - could well be millions! Fore all we know! or care there much - think of
Dressed in our bright orange overalls - we reluctantly walk
Some say '' fook it! '' turn back! - well - that's it for them!
The temptress - sun- won out - at least - over - two or three!
Well to The Welfare - club- then - catch the day bus back home!
Tatty - torn -ripped - stained - with - oil - grease - are our - orange - overalls
From - the shifts - we'd - completed
Survived - that week - down - The Pit
Lamps fixed - attached to - our white helmets
Helmets - showing clear evidence - of The Pit - uncertainty
Evidence - of being hit - somert - solid - hitting our helmets !
Some hang lamp cabals - around our - necks
Battery's and self rescuers on our belts
Self-rescuers - a device - should fire brake out
Always - a probability!
Time and conditions allowing
Lads - trained - to remove helmets - pull of the lid
Off the metal steel box -affix - the device over - nose and mouth
Helmets - back on
Device - purifies - the air we breath - well breathable air!
Forty five - minuets - to - walk out - to safety
Providing - we are able to walk - walk to - pit bottom
The most experienced collier - could make the wrong decision
Go in bye! And perish
The Pit - would be - total - blackness - lamps - would be of little use
Revel- show - nothing - only - dusts - coal and stone - flickers
So we hope - self rescuers - will - not be needed that day
Black leather steel caped boots - carry us - as each step we take - takes
Us closer to - The Cage!
Idle chat - jokes - pit banter - some even funny! ,
Walk towards the - winding house - to - The Cage ,
Across - The Pit Yard
Three decks - thirty five men - to a deck - that will take us down ,
Hades - awaits!
We each hand over our brass riding check to the banksman - for the records
We have two - one we kept - each one has our pit number - stamped
A mile below ground - Kent's - green and pleasant land
In too a world - that not even Dante could of - imagined ,
Take us , DOWN - DOWN - DOWN - TOO - HADES! man made - hell - under Kent,
We give our ridding brass token to the onseter
Walk on to The Cage
When each man is on - the gates are pulled shut - shutting us in
We hear the sound of bell tolling twice - signaling '' going in bye''
Some chat - others crack jokes - others are quiet
Then suddenly - with out warning - the cage drops!
Out of control! - all gos quiet now - so quiet - the harts beats - faster
No panic - that - goes on inside our minds - minds frozen - with fear!
I swear I couldhear the speeding harts - beating - blood pumping - heavy
breathing
All are thinking '' is this it? '' - most - trying not to think! minds trying to blank
Out thoughts! - Stop - THINKING!
The Cage - plunders down - down - towards - the sump - the Very Bottom
Of The Pit - Hades - awaits - us all - certain death - to embrace us all in death!
Total silence - The Cage - drops us - ever downwards - to hades
Will The Cage ever stop? - a fore it crashes in to a twisted - bloody heap
It's human cargo broken - a pile of broken bones - lifeless - body's m
Thigh bones - leg bones - shins bones - foot bones - false - through our yielding
Soft flesh - our blood - released - mixing with the coal and stone dust - oil and Grease
Stagnant - water - oh what a stench - down there - were we going to perish - down - there!
Of the impact - the revolting mess - that would be - US - I know of that
I'd read of such an '' incident '' , I hoped - none of the lads had!
Then as suddenly - The Cage - stops it's - deadly plunge - emergency braking
System - applyde - it - WORKS! - thank - fook!
All the lads were very - very quiet - each - still in fear of what
Could of been - our ending that day!
A lad snaps out of his fear - (that were me!)
Says to one and all:
''Don't know about you lads '' ,
''But I've just dyed me orange overalls - a deep brown '' ,
'' From the inside! ''
A spontaneous - cry of '' you basted! '' - broke the silence!
Yes - a - brown trouser moment!
We had savvied - something - rather nasty ,
An electrician had been working on the wiring - above - court the trip
With his booted foot ,
The emergency braking system kicked - in ,
Saving us from certain misfortune - oblivion - death!
The Cage Incident - never made it in to The News - as no one died - That Day!
*The Cage - the pit lift /elevator
Ken D Williams
The Dyslexic Wordsmith
Poetry by ken d williams
Read 500 times
Written on 2011-09-13 at 16:56
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THE CAGE INCIDENT
Twelfth thirty P M - noon shiftPit canteen - dinner - mug of tea
Chatting - pit banter
Pop in to shop - for chewing backer
A tin of snuff - last cigaret - till we ride the pit
From the start of the shift - once we walk on to The Cage
Our life's - in danger
Threatened - from the beginning
Should you not - pack an ounce of fear
Your just not right in the head! The Pit is lethal!
Danger - every step we take! Always - we are conchies - of that!
From the pit canteen - pit shop to the bathhouse
Strip off - one last cigarette - conversions - jokes - pit banter
Put on our orange overalls - leather - steel - cap boots - white helmets
Fill our dudlys* with water - hope it will see us through the shift
We walk across the pit yard - to the lamp cabin
From the lamp cabin - to the winding house
Cracking , jokes - we go across - the pit yard
Towards our fates
The sun shines above us
As if the sun is - pitying us?
As if like the sun knows - what awaits us down - there - below - her rays
Shining - down - worming us - a temptress - is the sun!
Tempting us - to turn round - head away - from where - we're heading
From where we were a going to - from - what we were going too!
To where the sun had not shone down upon - hundreds of thousands of
Years - could well be millions! Fore all we know! or care there much - think of
Dressed in our bright orange overalls - we reluctantly walk
Some say '' fook it! '' turn back! - well - that's it for them!
The temptress - sun- won out - at least - over - two or three!
Well to The Welfare - club- then - catch the day bus back home!
Tatty - torn -ripped - stained - with - oil - grease - are our - orange - overalls
From - the shifts - we'd - completed
Survived - that week - down - The Pit
Lamps fixed - attached to - our white helmets
Helmets - showing clear evidence - of The Pit - uncertainty
Evidence - of being hit - somert - solid - hitting our helmets !
Some hang lamp cabals - around our - necks
Battery's and self rescuers on our belts
Self-rescuers - a device - should fire brake out
Always - a probability!
Time and conditions allowing
Lads - trained - to remove helmets - pull of the lid
Off the metal steel box -affix - the device over - nose and mouth
Helmets - back on
Device - purifies - the air we breath - well breathable air!
Forty five - minuets - to - walk out - to safety
Providing - we are able to walk - walk to - pit bottom
The most experienced collier - could make the wrong decision
Go in bye! And perish
The Pit - would be - total - blackness - lamps - would be of little use
Revel- show - nothing - only - dusts - coal and stone - flickers
So we hope - self rescuers - will - not be needed that day
Black leather steel caped boots - carry us - as each step we take - takes
Us closer to - The Cage!
Idle chat - jokes - pit banter - some even funny! ,
Walk towards the - winding house - to - The Cage ,
Across - The Pit Yard
Three decks - thirty five men - to a deck - that will take us down ,
Hades - awaits!
We each hand over our brass riding check to the banksman - for the records
We have two - one we kept - each one has our pit number - stamped
A mile below ground - Kent's - green and pleasant land
In too a world - that not even Dante could of - imagined ,
Take us , DOWN - DOWN - DOWN - TOO - HADES! man made - hell - under Kent,
We give our ridding brass token to the onseter
Walk on to The Cage
When each man is on - the gates are pulled shut - shutting us in
We hear the sound of bell tolling twice - signaling '' going in bye''
Some chat - others crack jokes - others are quiet
Then suddenly - with out warning - the cage drops!
Out of control! - all gos quiet now - so quiet - the harts beats - faster
No panic - that - goes on inside our minds - minds frozen - with fear!
I swear I couldhear the speeding harts - beating - blood pumping - heavy
breathing
All are thinking '' is this it? '' - most - trying not to think! minds trying to blank
Out thoughts! - Stop - THINKING!
The Cage - plunders down - down - towards - the sump - the Very Bottom
Of The Pit - Hades - awaits - us all - certain death - to embrace us all in death!
Total silence - The Cage - drops us - ever downwards - to hades
Will The Cage ever stop? - a fore it crashes in to a twisted - bloody heap
It's human cargo broken - a pile of broken bones - lifeless - body's m
Thigh bones - leg bones - shins bones - foot bones - false - through our yielding
Soft flesh - our blood - released - mixing with the coal and stone dust - oil and Grease
Stagnant - water - oh what a stench - down there - were we going to perish - down - there!
Of the impact - the revolting mess - that would be - US - I know of that
I'd read of such an '' incident '' , I hoped - none of the lads had!
Then as suddenly - The Cage - stops it's - deadly plunge - emergency braking
System - applyde - it - WORKS! - thank - fook!
All the lads were very - very quiet - each - still in fear of what
Could of been - our ending that day!
A lad snaps out of his fear - (that were me!)
Says to one and all:
''Don't know about you lads '' ,
''But I've just dyed me orange overalls - a deep brown '' ,
'' From the inside! ''
A spontaneous - cry of '' you basted! '' - broke the silence!
Yes - a - brown trouser moment!
We had savvied - something - rather nasty ,
An electrician had been working on the wiring - above - court the trip
With his booted foot ,
The emergency braking system kicked - in ,
Saving us from certain misfortune - oblivion - death!
The Cage Incident - never made it in to The News - as no one died - That Day!
*The Cage - the pit lift /elevator
Ken D Williams
The Dyslexic Wordsmith
Poetry by ken d williams
Read 500 times
Written on 2011-09-13 at 16:56
Save as a bookmark (requires login) Write a comment (requires login) Send as email (requires login) Print text
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