Coal
Coal
Standing at the West Virginia state line
Looking into the green mountains of Kentucky
Seeing a past that I would long to forget
Memories of moonshine and watermelon wine
Of a girl with a sweet Georgia accent
And the smell of magnolias in her hair
A house in a town of 300
Seven children sharing a single bed
They cuddle close for warmth from the winter cold
Reading by firelight late into the night
Coal dust covers everything I own
A world made up of just shades of gray
A life of sadness and depression
Their faces are black from coal dust
Their lungs filled with cancer
No one will mourn their deaths
Everything and everyone by the company
Even their souls are owned by the mines
People live and die never knowing better
Never looking out of their small town
Never seeing beyond the entrances to the mines
Their eyes tell of such suffering
Children starving and unable to learn
As their clothes fall apart and fall in the mud
No one knows of how they live
No one knows how they suffer
No one knows how they die
No one cares as long as the coal keeps coming
No one cares
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