Her daddy ate fast
with black hands
and a black face
pushing coal dust
into his soft, red mouth
past teeth that were big and white
a little into her
leaf-filled blond hair.
He left smiling eyes
each morning
to hide underground
and hold the earth up
on his red shoulders.
And he stopped that
coal mining after eight
dirty long years to
work on top of the earth
and still somehow hold it up.
His little smile-eyed girl
learned the difference
between dark and light
and went left
while he hammered ever right.
And she wants to be proud
but those mountains are our bones
and that coal is our marrow