Poetry Selection
Pit Ponies
Theodosia Henney
A Shetland pony can pull several times
its body weight, which is why
they were put into the mines.
Draft horses pull less pound-for-pound,
though they may weigh up to a ton,
and would not have fit
down the shafts.
Before elevators
ponies were lowered in slings,
a miner standing on their backs
to mind the hook and say, “It’s all right.
It’s going to be all right,”
as ground ate the sun.
Law decreed they be four years
of age to enter the pit — they lived
in stables built into the rock, doors
and feed bins made from railway ties,
shaft supports. Some had electric lights.
The ponies might surface
once a year, for the colliery’s holiday,
or a long strike. Some died
when turned loose after months
below ground; bucked and galloped
until their hearts gave.
1913 in Britain
and 70,000 ponies lived underground,
hauling thirty tons of coal in eight-hour shifts
(silver in the States) until
they were twenty or dead.
The ones brought back up
wore blindfolds, seven or eight layers,
one to be removed each day
so they would not go blind in the light.
*****
Theodosia Henney can usually be found up a tree, inside a book, or both.
Her work has appeared in the Allegheny Review, Vestal Review, Ghost
Ocean Magazine, Damselfly Press, and Ozone Park Journal.
“Pit Ponies” appeared in the Spring 2012 Issue 10 of Fifth Wednesday Journal.