TRACES

Old and worked out
Tired faces
Of retired miners
Leaving traces
Pint in hand
Cigarette in other
Past coal dust
Still to smother.

Glasses chink
Like returning worlds
Locked away
In minds to churn
Talk of football
Horses dogs
The betting shops
The local pubs.

The mining houses
Slowly replaced
By bright new homes
Now in their place
The younger people
Dont really know
Men worked like horses
Through sun and snow.