A Thankless Task

They worked the mine for 50 years

In the heat and dark, digging for coal.

Every day they confronted their fears

Of ever getting out of this stinking hole.

At age sixty five they fill their last wagon

leaving the pit with a handshake and lamp.

They also take with them lungs full of dust

retirement blighted by bronchitis and cramp.

In their mid seventies, if they are lucky

They’ll need to breath oxygen through a mask.

Most won’t see eighty, pneumoconiosis

The price they pay for a thankless task.