A Rag-tash Collier

[dazb]

He was a rag-tash collier
From Doncaster way
A big tough lad
With plenty to say.
The greatest hewer in all the pit
Bacca and muscles in his spit.
He could carry a crown
On both his shoulders
And smash with his fists
The hardest of boulders.
Sup more beer
Than anyone here.
Ran up and down drifts
Worked triple shifts
A Monday hammer in either hand
Played tuba for the colliery band.
At eighteen stone a giant of a chap
Had inch thick bacon on his snap.
Thirty years old then in his prime
But at fifty he’s old before his time
His shoulders have dropped
His breathing not easy.
A man who once,
Just couldn’t be stopped
Now struggles to walk
And even talk.
Coal was once his very his life
Its dust now reclaiming it.

[Ragger]

Hi. Daz me old mate, Merry Xmas.

So true about the dust problem destroying mens lives.

Dust Clouds.


With each single step we took; as we walked inbye,
A little cloud of dust took flight; some went in each eye.
A lot of it was swallowed or went inside our lungs,
It made us cough and splutter; it was, caked upon our tongues.

The dust it hangs suspended in the air we had to breath,
No wonder most coal miners end up with such a wheeze.
Dust takes its toll on every man who travels in its path,
It has no mercy, no regrets; all victims of its wrath.

A lot of it was coal dust which built up from year to year,
It was mixed with bags of stone dust to reduce its might; I fear.
For coal dust, when ignited is a lethal, violent, force,
What comes in contact with it is destroyed without remorse.

Now lungs are full to busting point; we’ve not yet reached the face,
When coaling starts; the dust clouds grow, at an alarming pace.
We swallowed tons of dust most days; while working in the mine,
No wonder that we suffer so; and grow old before our time.

If we pause for just a moment and reflect; this I sadly say,
That dust, especially coal dust; can get you either way,
If your lungs survive the onslaught it endures each working day,
At the slightest chance coal dust ignites and blows your life away,