A Man was Killed in the Mine Today – Poem

There is a clatter and a clash in the dusty stones,
As the rock drills dash at the good grey ore.
There is labor and sweat, for the company hopes
For a quote in the share list of one point more.
There is wealth to grasp; there are divs to pay;
And what is a laborer more of less?
‘Mid the din and the clamor now who would guess
That a man was killed in the mine today!

So the skips roll on – there’s a tally to make,
For the stamps are hungry and iron shod.
Whose lips would quiver? Whose heart could break?
While there’s grist for the mills of the rich man’s god!
There’s a ten bob wage for the risk he ran-
The paltry risk. If he got passed out,
Tis nothing to worry our heads about-
He opened a job for a luckier man!

He was only a shoveller – put it aside,
Where there’s gold to win such things must be.
He gave his pounds to the rich man’s pride:
And what is a life? Yet it came to me:
There maybe somebody far away
Some soft eyed woman who’s tears would flow,
And who’s cheek would pale if she did but know
That a man was killed in the mine today!

By: Tom ‘Crosscut’ Wilson 12th May 1907.