Down In The Hole

 

 

My father said it was this life or the dole –

so sacrifice ambition, heart and soul

if our family was to earn a crust

then I would have to work until I was bust

Years of hardship finally took its toll

I had danced to the tune of Old King Coal

and I was laid off, let into the light

a blessing to escape eternal night

 

I was sixteen, they threw me down the hole,

in the new black empire of worm and mole.

I stood in darkness, breathing in the dust

An environment as old and corrosive as rust

 

Forever stained in black and bent of spine,

from the nightmare recesses of the mine

I bury my head low and try to hide

and remember those who lived and those who died

Newmarket, Parkhill, Lofthouse, Cross Lane

I will never go through there again

From the pits of my memories there comes a chill draft

I left my footprints in abandoned shafts

 

I was sixteen, they threw me down the hole,

in the new black empire of worm and mole.

I stood in darkness, breathing in the dust

An environment as old and corrosive as rust

 

The black stuffs in my blood and in my bone

The pitheads now are gone or overgrown

Just like my friends most of these pits are lost

Just memories and ghosts to count the cost

 

I was sixteen, they threw me down the hole,

in the new black empire of worm and mole.

I stood in darkness, breathing in the dust

An environment as old and corrosive as rust

I was sixteen, they threw me down the hole,

in the new black empire of worm and mole.

I stood in darkness, breathing in the dust

An environment as old and corrosive as rust