WITTENOOM

A melancholy little town
half dead and half alive
Polluted by a deadly waste
it struggles to survive

A mining town where workers came
from here and overseas
They never knew their lives were touched
by fatal lung disease

They toiled beneath a clear blue sky
through rains and through the heat
A town in deadly paradise
asbestos on their feet

Much later when the men grew sick
and then began to die
The company denied their claims
but knew it was a lie

In court they dragged the cases out
until the bitter end
and wives now widows went without
their lovers and their friends

The deadly dust lies everywhere
but some still struggle on
The pub is standing empty now
the petrol station gone

The miners ghosts are wandering
the silent lonely town
Their spirits haunt the empty streets
that they had once walked down

(c) 1995

Wittenoom

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