"The Dying Miner" lyrics - PETE SEEGER

It happened an hour ago
Way down in a tunnel of coal
The gas caught fire from somebody's lamp
And the miners are choking in smoke.

Dear sister and brother, goodbye.
Dear father and mother, goodbye.
My fingers are weak, I cannot write.
Goodbye, Centralia, goodbye.

This looks like the end for me, and all of my buddies, I see.
We're all writing letters, to the ones that we love.
Please carry these words to our wives.

I hear the moans and the groans,
Of more than a hundred good men.
When the nightwhistle blows, and I don't come home, do all that you can to help mom.
Dear sister and brother, goodbye.
Dear father and mother, goodbye.
My fingers are weak, I cannot write.
Goodbye, Centralia, goodbye.
Goodbye, Centralia, goodbye.