Down into Darkness

darkness greeted their entrance
   into darkness
to bring light to the South
   into the underworld they went

It was the furnace of their occupation
horizons cramped, backs bent
in earnest effort, blackened heroes
swinging picks into seams
rotting beams their best friends
holding their lives in balance
a broken back or a early demise

wives praying for safe return home, 
not to the earth
holding them in probable incubation
as they toiled
until a heavenly journey upwards
into another, more welcome
blackness that gripped the sky

but if something went wrong
whole families could fall
into the pit of darkness

the physical fuelling the spiritual 
they somehow retained an inner light
and some still struggled, contemplating,
groping for a higher meaning
down in the darkness