Man
from
Merthyr
Memory loss punched
holes in your head
and let in the dark,
instead of the light.
Constellations faded,
erased by the arch-
angel’s coal-dust wing.
“I’m shrinking,” you said,
the last time I saw you,
you who had been taller
were now smaller than me.
Tonight,
when the harvest
moon shines bright
and drowns the stars
in its sea of light,
I will sit by my window
and watch for your soul
as it rockets its
way to eternity.
My eyes will be dry.
I do not wish
pink runnels to run
down this coal-miner’s
unwashed face.
“When the coal
comes from the Rhondda
down the Merthyr-Taff Vale line,
when the coal
comes from the Rhondda
I’ll be there.”
With you,
shoulder to shoulder.
Farewell, my friend,
safe journey.
rogermoorepoet 
Sorry for your loss Roger… a heart felt elegy. Sad
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He was a good friend: an excellent mathematician and quiz-master for the Central New Brunswick Welsh Society. He wrote up the quizzes for the annual meetings. I don’t know who will do that now. He had Alzheimers and slowly faded away and was “lost” well before he was ‘lost’. Very sad.
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Sorry for your loss
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Love the image of the tear tracks on the coal-dusted face!
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Once a miner, always a miner: it only takes one underground worker in the family … those deep, pink tracks are unforgettable.
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Sir !! What is Rhondda.?
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The Rhondda Valley (there are actually two, Fach and Fawr) are coal mining valleys in South Wales. At their maximum production some 150-200 coal mines produced high quality coal that was moved by train often down the “Methyr-Taff Vale line” to Barry Docks and the sea at Cardiff. The mines functioned from the late 1800’s through to 1960-1966 when the mines and the colleries were finally shut down.
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Yeah.i m too thinking same as u said about Rhondda.
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*bt(by)
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Wonderful by saddy.it is truth dt all livings have an end of their lives.what a tragrdy.
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The memory loss was tragic: my friend was a wonderful teacher and mathematician. To see those skills lost and forgotten was heart-breaking. Otherwise, all things must come to an end: that’s the law of life and it’s a law we must all obey. Best wishes.
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Yeah.some people is special who r often rememberd by us after his end of life.bt what we do about God wills.
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Excellent. I love the way you framed “memory loss”…very vivid.
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Thanks, Tanya. It was a difficult poem to write. A close friend and his funeral was today. The piece in italics is an old Welsh mining song. He was from Merthyr, and Taff Vale is the stop before Cardiff, where my parents used to live. The full name of his town is Merthyr Tydfil.
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Sorry to hear that, Roger…
My sympathies.
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Nothing we can do about it. Bear up and carry on, I suppose. We had become separated over the years, his illness didn’t help, and I rarely saw him, just that once in the supermarket, a few years ago now. Thanks again for being here. I guess I’ll be watching the moon tonight.
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I will watch with you…
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