Morning is Broken

Morning had broken
with the banks of the slag tip,
slurry and fine dust, heavier
for the damp air, rain
and retained water;

infants singing early prayer,
morning broke through the class room wall—
one by one exhumed by sobbing miners
pitting their breath on the edge of a shovel.

Morning broke by cries,
a whistle for silence,
stillness, then maddening digging,
constrasting any parent happier
for a call from that bastard mitcher-man.

The bucket brigade tilled,
and towed off the collapse of a morning
no blackbird willed to speak on,
no creature the first to voice.

Black and white forever:
black as the slag, and white as the crowd;
news reels and stories,
a generation lost to the mountain;
an ornamental garden—morning's verse
cut into the stone wall.

Morning has broken,
never to be whole again.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-37689736
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'Mitching' is a colloquialism for truancy, bunking, playing hooky... whatever you call it in your area. The mitcher-man is the man from the local council who rounds the kids up and brings them home to their parents for a good taling to--well, he used to nowadays, there aren't really any true mitcher-men, just some office workers who look at attendance and investigate absenteeism, issuing a fine or appropriate action to the parents. I used 'bastard' as an adjective because no one really liked the old incaration of that job... but I intended it as a strengthener too because, of the 116 kids who lost their lives that day, I bet any parent would have been pleased to hear that their child was not among them because they had mitched off instead.

Thanks for the read, Patty. In case you're wondering, 'Morning has broken' was the hymn the kids were singing that day.