Let's go walk into the dawn
It's barely morning, but I can feel the break of day,
and nothing safe can stay.
It's that West Virginia heat
It creeps in quiet, and then it knocks you off your feet,
'till the rain comes cool and sweet
I saw the sky fall down up on Old Briar Hill,
the children left heir games with no more fancy to roam,
when the light on the Monongah led them home.
Let's go walk those empty roads
Can you heart them? All those wagons rolling by?
They took the reach out of the sky
Let's stop working for a day
Feel the sun again, let the river wash us clean,
of all the coal-dust sweat and dreams
I saw the men one morning leave their memories in the ground
What's better left to missing you can never call your own,
when the lights on the Monongah lead you home.
So can you point me to the West
The trains are quiet now, but we're still waiting for our pay,
and those who slipped along the way
And can you take me to my love?
He lay beside me once, but now he sleeps beneath the ground
I saw the women mourning over by the burial grounds
They left their children hungry in those shanties all alone,
When the lights on the Monongah led them home.
