Aberfan

Aberfan: I hear weeping in the Welsh lilt  
of the shocked news readers who will stun their world,  
with, forty-four adults, who that day were killed,  
and one hundred sixteen children, had not heard,  
 
the slithering black tidal wave of  slurry  
smear its first prey, Hafod Tanglwys Uchaf,  
on its way to Pantglas Junior School, a blurry  
monster to kill children their school and its staff...  
 
Nineteen sixty-six. A million ton of coal waste,  
a wave forty-feet high rushed down a mountainside,  
to Merthyr Vale mine and destroyed all in its haste  
and from that day on the Vale's eyes, have not dried.  
 
Is there anything sadder than this? I think  
No... I couldn't have coped not even with strong drink.