On the day of the
Shadows pointed towards the pithead:
In thesun the slagheap slept.
Down the lane came men in
Coughing oath-edged talk and
Shouldering off the freshened silence.
One chased after rabbits; lost them;
Came back with a nest of lark's eggs;
Showed them; lodged them in the grasses.
So they passed in beards and
Fathers brothers nicknames
Through the tall gates standing open.
At noon there came a tremor;
Stopped chewing for a second;
Scarfed as in a heat-haze dimmed.
The dead go on before us
Are sitting in God's house in
We shall see them face to face—plian as lettering in the
It was said and for a
Wives saw men of the
Larger than in life they managed—Gold as on a coin or
Somehow from the sun towards
One showing the eggs unbroken.
