When you disappear underground
lovers don't make a sound
oh they'll tip toe around
honor driven and honor bound
on the day that whistle blows
signifying trouble below
cameras notice but they still don't know
where the wife of a miner is forced to go

West Virginia Eastern PA
wherever coal sees the light of day
how many ghosts no one can say
but then it's always been this way
collar colors are white and blue
save the collars for the church pew
Lord gives and takes away from you
wife of a miner heads underground too

in Tallmansville
God turned away
oh I wonder what he's got to say
in Tallmansville
God turned away
I wonder what he's got to say
to the faithful today

Choices down here came and went
like hours that were never spent
with loved ones who we now lament
for that last long descent
when they can even take a miracle away
tell me what's left to betray
I should take my kids and run away
half of me it died today

So pack up your trucks and head back home
we'll manage better when left alone
when they carved the union in a tombstone
you were watching over your own
if at the end of your shift you thank God you're alive
maybe the union we should revive
is it for this that the ghosts they have strived?
my husband dead at 35 
is it for this that the ghosts they have strived?
my husband dead at 35

in Tallmansville
God turned away
oh I wonder what he's got to say

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