Today folk amble along mine tracks
Where once tin was hard hauled.
Inclines were handled by boys, blackened
With pit dust, bare armed, mauled
By overfilled trucks. Bal-maidens worked
Here too, loading ore. Fine young
Females, hair capped, their laughter shirking
The rules. Slack was, among
Such tender crews not allowed, they sang
Though, mining ballards, loudly.
As shovel struck ore, these tracks just rang
With young voices, as, proud
Of their Cornishness, they kept in line.
Silent now, old mine tracks
Still ring with lost childhood, and some nights
We hear singing come back.
Fay Slimm
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/along-these-lines-2/
