Our Day In The Sun – A Coal Miner’s Poem

Our Day In The Sun
by Carole ‘Mickey’ Lambert

This is Our Day In The Sun

For decades our families worked below the earth
Mining day after day for chunks of shiny, black diamonds.

To put food on the table and a roof over their heads.

Our brothers, fathers, grandfathers, uncles and cousins.
Worked in mother earth for that guy in the big house on the hill.

Not all days bad, some not so good.

We work in the black dust for a dollar, and then wind up on our backs hooked to machines of oxygen later before we’re done.

All for our day in the sun.

In Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and all the way to Illinois.

We know the dangers, and yes we know the cost.

When that day comes, when the earth comes crashing down.

We knew the risks, it was all for our day in the sun.

You know our bodies are here, but our souls are with God.
Don’t worry, I’m just fine. We’ll see each other again,when we both walk in the sun.

For we have touched the face of God.
This was worth the fight.
Worth the black hell we left behind.

All for our day in the sun.

Our Day In The Sun was published in the McLeansboro Illinois Times-Leader the week following the Sago disaster.

Copyrighted by Carole “Mickey” Lambert  January 8, 2006.