Black Mountain
Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2018 2:46 pm
Black Mountain
by Lichen Throat
Hillsides glimmer in the dark of the night
From the fires of the moonshine stills.
I spent all day breathing anthracite
At the back of a six-inch drill.
I went underground while the dawn was just
A wish in the eastern sky.
I’m covered from head to boots with dust,
And my throat is raw and dry.
After eight hours of darkness,
I sometimes feel unwell.
If cleanliness is next to godliness,
Then I must be next to hell.
Lived my life at the foot of Black Mountain;
Never known anything else.
Oh, Black Mountain.
My daddy died when the mine caved in;
And my uncle’s got black lung.
This is how things have always been
Since great-grandpa was young.
We tell ourselves we’re the salt of the earth,
But the salt has lost its taste,
So we’ve been trampled underfoot
And buried in mining waste.
This city was never on a hill,
And the mountaintop’s been torn down.
Too many dead from fentanyl
Around this broken town.
Lived my life at the foot of Black Mountain;
Never known anything else.
Oh, Black Mountain.
Is this the way it has to be?
I can’t imagine so.
Oh, God above, hear my plea
And show us what to do.
The good old days ain’t coming back
No matter what the redcaps say.
One by one, the old smokestacks
Go cold, crumble away.
It’s hard to see this fall apart
And not fall to despair;
It’s hard to heal my broken heart
When our lives seem so unfair.
Lived my life at the foot of Black Mountain;
Never known anything else.
Oh, Black Mountain.
by Lichen Throat
Hillsides glimmer in the dark of the night
From the fires of the moonshine stills.
I spent all day breathing anthracite
At the back of a six-inch drill.
I went underground while the dawn was just
A wish in the eastern sky.
I’m covered from head to boots with dust,
And my throat is raw and dry.
After eight hours of darkness,
I sometimes feel unwell.
If cleanliness is next to godliness,
Then I must be next to hell.
Lived my life at the foot of Black Mountain;
Never known anything else.
Oh, Black Mountain.
My daddy died when the mine caved in;
And my uncle’s got black lung.
This is how things have always been
Since great-grandpa was young.
We tell ourselves we’re the salt of the earth,
But the salt has lost its taste,
So we’ve been trampled underfoot
And buried in mining waste.
This city was never on a hill,
And the mountaintop’s been torn down.
Too many dead from fentanyl
Around this broken town.
Lived my life at the foot of Black Mountain;
Never known anything else.
Oh, Black Mountain.
Is this the way it has to be?
I can’t imagine so.
Oh, God above, hear my plea
And show us what to do.
The good old days ain’t coming back
No matter what the redcaps say.
One by one, the old smokestacks
Go cold, crumble away.
It’s hard to see this fall apart
And not fall to despair;
It’s hard to heal my broken heart
When our lives seem so unfair.
Lived my life at the foot of Black Mountain;
Never known anything else.
Oh, Black Mountain.