The Midnight Shift.

My Great-great-grandfather...                
               
" There warra tip by Miggy wood                
dug out o Miggy mine                
an it were girtly big, like a mountain stood,              
an it smouldered all the time.                
(belching sulphurous fumes reeking of hell )                
               
Coals were mined there since ancient days                
people lived, worked there and died,                
and a village grew and was known as Middleton                
cos it grew twixt pit and slag-pile            
(their dead were buried elsewhere)                
               
It was said neolithics had dug for coal                
using antlers of the giant elk.                
and they'd tramped and tramped a little road                
betwixt spoil heap and where they dwelt.                
(we knew this), now known as ' Old Run Road ')                
               
They were a tidy lot and dug their graves                
adjacent to their spoil heaps,                
their miners considered as sacred braves                
laid to rest with honour for their long sleep.                
(they kept settlements warm during their big freeze)                
               
Centuries past and the spoil heap grew                
till it dominated the landscape,             
and swallowed up those brave ancient few                
and  little mines that they had scraped.                
(the neolithics vanished from mind...)                
               
Well, coal fell in and out of fashion                
till the mine owners started to panic,                
as the tip smouldered on all grey an ashen            
they decided to sell it all on, and quick.            
               
It was all about to vanish, my dear,            
history and our local myth                
under brick and stone, forever disappeared,            
till I found fossiled bones, on my midnight shift "