All through the night    (Ar Hyd A Nos)          

All was dark in the Vale of Abercwmdu. Dark like the seam of death which ran beneath our feet. When we looked up we saw the sky, pitch black. 

A terrible stillness had dropped upon us, draping us in its home grown bitter misery. I can feel it now, bringing an icy shiver into me, deep inside. We are covered in darkness, above and below. Blanket black above; anthracite shadows below. It would burn with a cold blue flame in mam-gu’s hearth. And that cold now lay all around, clenching and unclenching like a fist. We waited all night and then they brought the first man out. Dai Twp (Dai stupid) he was always the one at the back, lagging behind as usual. Saved his life this time though- I suppose he’ll be more stupid than ever after what he’s seen this day. 

 A sudden rock fall and then the oxygen disappearing like a will- o’- the- wisp and Dai Twp, too Twp to get his words out at the best of times let alone the worst of times. At least his mam was pleased to see him and for a moment he gave us all a stab of hope. Some hope. Problem is that when an accident happens, and they do, everyone feels it like a shaft straight through the heart. We’re all related see- one way or another. It’s everyone’s brother, cousin, uncle, father. Everyone’s. 

I can hear them whisper, holding hope close ‘Cariad’ they cry deep down into the earth, ‘Cariad’: Love, Lover. Beloved. But the earth does not reply. 

And then one by one, all through the night, they bring them out with their breathing done. Faces blackened, eyes burned, throats closed. Dust to dust, ashes of men and the anthracite burns with its blue carbon monoxide flare deep down in *mam-gu’s heart.

* mam-gu: Grandmother.