
Policeman Victor Jones carries injured surivor of the Aberfan disaster Susan Maybank, 21 October 1966. Commons image
By Mike Jenkins
Kids d’ see thin’s like.
Ee seen it tha boy
In class a week b’fore
The tip ud fall.
Ee drew a ewge bomber
Over ower little pit village
With NCB wriitten on-a side
An big black bombs droppin.
Ow could ee ave known?
Somewhere inside is ead
Dark as a gall’ry,
Somewhere deep down.
A place where ee on’y
Wen to in is dreams
Fulla dust an damp –
Where is ol marn worked.
On-a mornin it appened
Ee goh out jest in time –
Is mam gripped im
Like she’d never done.
Weeks arfta, ee played
With mates in-a fields
Top o the mountain, they breathed
In the breeze like ponies runnin.
Is mam kept tha pitcher
In a drawer till years arfta –
Tellin a reporter who sat gobsmacked
Starin at-a warplane, missiles o coal.
