(In response to Greg Freeman’s call-out for villanelles, I re-post this effort of mine from 2014. It tells of the cardinal sin a raw recruit would only ever make once when he entered a hand-filled coal face for the first time)
“There’s no bigger, silly bastard undergroun’
A disgrace to thee, ‘is mam an’ ‘is class
‘E took ‘is fuckin’ shovel wrong road roun’.
We’d walked back in once t’shotties fired their roun’
An’dep’ty said as we wa’ clear o’ gas
There’s no bigger silly bastard undergroun’.
So 27 colliers knelt down
An’ crawled their way through props an’ bars just as
‘E shouts, “Mi fuckin’ shovel’s wrong road roun’”.
The fuckin’ pog’s that tight it wain’t turn roun’
There wa’n’t the fuckin’ space to let ‘im pass
There’s no bigger silly bastard undergroun’.
At fust we thought we took ‘im fo’ a clown
The silly bastard’s grinnin’ like a lass
‘E’d took ‘is fuckin’ shovel wrong road roun’.
Twenty fuckin’ minutes out an’ in-bound
That silly twat o’ thine ‘as cost us brass
There’s no bigger silly bastard undergroun’.
‘E took ‘is fuckin’ shovel wrong road roun’.”
