It's Still Life

The Breaker Boys

This is the way of it,
black dust and
gritty lungs

and spending days
bent to other minds
and other lives.

Time is an early old age,
emblazoned on their spine.

There’s a constant cough
like wild dogs
at ones throat,

and they fall to pieces,
like a stone
under a hammer.

Photo US Library of Congress, Flickr Commons, Public Domain, US National Archives “Breaker Boys at Pit #9 Pittston, PA”, circa 1911. The smallest of the boys on the left is Sam Belloma. Modern day child labour exists, (Unicef link) and it is a global disgrace. ©Misky 2022 Shared with #amwriting #apoemaday on Twitter