Picketline

I stood with them shoulder to shoulder,
Solid as rock, in the miners' picket line,
Like a forest of oak and a mountain of boulders,
We suffered the sentence yet committed no crime.

We had only our donkey jackets for warmth,
Besides our comradeship and cause,
When they rode us down in the North
And it was all just because
The coalmen stood up to the Iron Lady,
But her Bootboys beat us down;
They had horses and sticks and their deeds were shady.

We did for a year without our luncheons,
Our wives sustained us and our kids ate air,
All that went into out mouths was their wooden truncheons
As we chanted our despair.

That was the day that class stood still,
We fought for our jobs; they for their bigotry.
That we lost all was a bitter pill,
But at least we still had our dignity.

29/1/18.