I was required
To participate in two days
Of MSHA training, to be a certified miner.
My group had an excellent instructor.

I think all receptive nations
Should train all of their people
In safety, and awareness of potential harm,
First aid and current legal issues of such,
Along with the index and content of humanity.

I hadn’t thought, much, what
I would do in an emergency,
When flesh and blood meet concrete,
Steel or flooring. Its occurrence wasn’t a big
Inclusion in my life. Until now.

There are factors which circumstance
Our individual lives. Lucky, or not; happy
Or sad; structured, or loose, it's fate, and not.

I’m not too big, in a personal fashion, of sharing
My humanity with humanity. In words, yes, but,
The substance of life hurts. My MSHA training
Helped open my eyes.

Firstly, is the pathology of blood, and, the need
To save the safety of our own.

Secondly is the responsibility to others blood,
Legally and morally.

My mother’s husband fell, last night,
While trying to adjust his television, to
The tile floor. There was a lot of blood,
He hit his head.

I forgot all thoughts of disease,
Or contamination. What I ‘remembered’
Was the sudden trauma of human need...

Our Instructor told a story, one of many,
Of a Man lying under his flipped-over truck,
With no way to survive. Another man,
Who’d been partying, came by on his way
For more beer. This man saw the Man
Pinned under his truck, he saw the wreck,
And continued on his way, figuring the Man
Was as good as dead. But, the Man wasn’t,
The Man under the pick-up truck. In the end,
He died alone.

As my daughter, my mother and I
Hovered over a different Man, aiding his plight,
I gave my hand to his, and felt the clench
Of life in his grip…

There was blood on my bare hands, but,
I didn’t stop because of repercussions. I think
I know, now, it’s not physical blood that counts,
It’s soul-caring that matters, in the end, because...

Souls last longer than blood.

Erin Elizabeth Kelly-Moen
© Copyright 6/16/06