The Explosion

    Shadows pointed¹ towards the pithead：

    In thesun the slagheap slept.

    Down the lane came men in pitboots

    Coughing oath-edged talk and pipe-smoke

    Shouldering off the freshened silence.

    One chased after rabbits； lost them；

    Came back with a nest of lark's eggs；

    Showed them； lodged² them in the grasses.

    SO they passed in beards and moleskins

    Fathers brothers nicknames laughter

    Through the tall gates standing³ open.

    At noon there came a tremor⁴； cows

    Stopped chewing for a second； sun

    Scarfed as in a heat-haze dimmed.

    The dead go on before us they

    Are sitting in God's house in comfort

    We shall see them face to face——

    plian as lettering in the chapels⁵

    It was said and for a second

    Wives saw men of the explosion

    Larger than in life they managed——

    Gold as on a coin or walking

    Somehow from the sun towards them

    One showing the eggs unbroken.