Official Web Site of Laura Treacy Bentley

Since this is Memorial Day weekend, I've decided to publish my poem online in memory of the 29 miners who lost their lives at Upper Big Branch Mine in 2010.

Montcoal, West Virginia: April 2010

Night after night of this cruelest month,

porch lights beckon the miners home

and wait for a truck to top the hill.

Each evening they keep watch,

listening for the crush of tires on gravel,

the bark of a faithful dog.

But the men aren’t coming back,

tonight or any night

from Upper Big Branch mine.

Deep underground

twenty-nine headlamps

have long gone out,

but families hold vigil and pray,

and somehow the miners

hear each whispered word,

see all those porch lights

candling the darkness,

calling them home.