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