They Shut the Last Mine Down

They sailed ‘cross the ocean, with little emotion
The weak, the strong, young and old
And when they came forth, they settled up north
‘Cause they weren’t afraid of the cold

Their English was broken, so little was spoken
But actions meant much more than words
With backs that were sore, they dug up the ore
Protected from bad air by birds

The iron and copper, they filled in the hopper
Built cities where wealthy folks lived
Time without loved ones, daughters and young sons
Were the hardest things for them to give

And that’s what I thought of when I read the news
On the back page of the Mining Gazette
Beside a picture of a young girl in a white wedding gown
It said they shut the last mine down

When they spoke with accents, their words didn’t make sense
To people too well-off to care
But the sons of their children, made the well-off a million
By working like they had down there

The times they did change, and their work was to blame
For the stuff that they dug from the ground
Built fancy machines and all sorts of things
That moved all the jobs from their towns

And that’s what I thought of when I read the news
On the back page of the Mining Gazette
Beside a picture of a young girl in a white wedding gown
It said they shut the last mine down

The run-down old shacks, that haven’t collapsed
Are all that we see of their time
We rarely ask why, as we drive on by
Did they suffer such a decline?

But that’s what I thought of when I read the news
On the back page of the Mining Gazette
Beside a picture of a young girl in a white wedding gown
It said they shut the last mine down

They sailed ‘cross the ocean, with little emotion
The weak, the strong, young and old
And when they came forth, they settled up north
‘Cause they weren’t afraid of the cold