Mary E. Rogers and Alan L. Winters

MINER’S LAMENT: NINE FOR NINE AT QUECREEK MINE

Quecreek Mine Bronze Statue
The 7 foot tall bronze statue of a coal miner at the top of the walkway into the Quecreek Mine rescue siteThere’s a hard working town
In Somerset County,
Where a man’s not a man
If he’s not in the mine.

And you learn when you’re young
You may never grow old
As you crack through the earth
And you gather black gold.

Well it’s dark and it’s dirty
But it’s still your next meal
As the company pays you
In coke, coal and steel.

©Copyright July 2002 by Alan L. Winters

Author’s Note: I started writing this song when nine miners were trapped in the Quecreek Coal Mine in Pennsylvania in July 2002. It was assumed they would perish and the song was going to be a memorial to their death. They all lived and I was grateful never to have had to finish the song. - Alan: May 8, 2006

What will the day hold
As you enter the shaft
Will you walk back out
Or will you die in a blast

Will you be buried alive
Waiting, hoping to be found
Before your last breath
Is the final sound

Are they searching for you
Or have they given up hope
Then the drillers break through
And nine miners came out

Governor Scweiker was there
And the camera’s bright lights
The men just wanted to go home
With their families that night

Tomorrow they will return
There is no choice, you know
Their families must eat
So into the darkness they’ll go