Big Beautiful Coal

Nick Torres

Grandpa wore a red bandana
Said the dust would wash away
Rock dust settled in the kitchen
Supper bought on miner’s pay
Daddy swore the mountain’s mercy
Was a blessing, not a debt
Said a man earns what he’s given
It’s a coal town, don’t forget

They call it big, beautiful coal
Like it don’t leave a mark
But every breath was interest
On a loan signed in the dark
It followed him home from that coal face
Long after the whistle blew
At the Widowmaker Seam
Every breath was the bill still due

First it was just the front porch steps
Then the walk out to the drive
Said he’d catch his breath in a minute
Just needed a little time
Tubing snaked across the floor
Tank beside him in the living room
He left the seam, but it didn’t leave him
Every breath was the bill still due

They call it big, beautiful coal
Like it don’t leave a mark
But every breath was interest
On a loan signed in the dark
It followed him home from that coal face
Long after the whistle blew
At the Widowmaker Seam
Every breath was the bill still due

Oh hear them say “big, beautiful coal”
From some polished TV screen
Talk about jobs and keeping lights on
Like they know what that word means
I guess we were just numbers
In a ledger they don’t see
Black ink where the profit lives
Black lung where I used to be

I catch myself halfway up the stairs
Hand braced against the wall
Doctor says it’s “early stages”
Like it changes anything at all
I used to think a man had no choice
That this was just our way
That you grow up, you go below
And you hand your lungs away

But I’ve watched the mountain take its share
Watched it hollow out men’s dreams
You ain’t going down there, boy
Not to the Widowmaker Seam

They call it big, beautiful coal
Like it don’t leave a mark
But every breath was interest
On a loan signed in the dark
It followed me home from that coal face
Long after the whistle blew
At the Widowmaker Seam
My boy don’t get that bill — don’t owe no more to you