MOVIE
When I was ten they took me into a coal mine
I gave a report to our class that had seen
How Green Was My Valley a movie set in Wales
The miners had lamps like my grandfather’s
lamps & I never forgot the whistle explosion
the father trapped & killed but I had forgotten
the wage cuts the strike the lost jobs
the emigration to countries like our own
TWO LITTLE MINERS
Two Little Miners standing on
the Little Golden Book cover
one white and one black
they smile at each other
Like the integrated miners
union . . . oh but look inside:
They wake up clean as snow but
by night they’ve turned black
black as soot, night, a crow,
black as black, coal black
Back home (they live alone but
someone’s fixed their supper):
Two little miners / Black as night
Scrub in your tub / Until you’re white
