The Explosion

On the day of the explosion
Shadows pointed towards the pithead:
In thesun the slagheap slept.


Down the lane came men in pitboots
Coughing oath-edged talk and pipe-smoke 
Shouldering off the freshened silence.


One chased after rabbits; lost them;
Came back with a nest of lark's eggs;
Showed them; lodged them in the grasses.


SO they passed in beards and moleskins 
Fathers brothers nicknames laughter 
Through the tall gates standing open.


At noon there came a tremor; cows
Stopped chewing for a second; sun 
Scarfed as in a heat-haze dimmed.


The dead go on before us they
Are sitting in God's house in comfort 
We shall see them face to face--

plian as lettering in the chapels
It was said and for a second
Wives saw men of the explosion

Larger than in life they managed--
Gold as on a coin or walking
Somehow from the sun towards them 

One showing the eggs unbroken.

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