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Writer's picturetenbrunsel2

HAZARD

Updated: Jan 10


A coal miner’s soul plunges down

Deep dark into blackness

His heart and life remain up top.

With coal dusted lungs

He surfaces again

To be with his family, friends and heart.


Without him and his courage

What happens?

Cold darkness for us too?

What percentage of life depends on

His decent down damp, dark there?

One third you say

Oh happy day

Or perhaps

Or perhaps two thirds of us perish

If he doesn’t come out

Of that God forsaken black hole.


Don’t like those odds,

There in Hazard!

Some say the hazardous entrance to hell

Is in Hazard!


Betting on wind and solar and green?

May be a hazard unseen

Think again!

Trees live on carbon

Trees give off oxygen

We need O2 to live

Do the math.


Raw coal black energy!


9/2/2023

tom tenbrunsel

Carl Sandburg Writer 2023

Author’s Note: You might want to check out Malvena Reynold’s description about the coal miners’ plight in her song “Mrs. Clara Sullivan’s Letter,” sung by Pete Seeger https://youtu.be/KD2_dkRbyho?si=Ze5ZWWoRR8MMSlBJ


*Photo of coal miners 1908

Lewis Wicks Hines (1874 - 1940) public domain


God bless the coal miners🙏



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