This Path saw many men on a morning,
Walk to work ‘Lowry-like’ To a new shift.
Laughs at some Smutty joke, that goal Off-Side,
Sons dressed as fathers, fathers dressed as Grandfathers, the result of lost ambition.
For there lying up ahead the Factory looms like a Dystopian City,
Through the gates and wages for odd nights out,
Or stretching to a wet week in Blackpool.
Night-Shift pass along ready for warm beds,
Warm Wives and the emptiness of the Hours.
But when the axe did fall, it severed clean.
No Member from the House of Fawkes could help,
How the Job Centres gut was glutinous,
All dignity striped and cast in a heap.
Sons broke briefly, fathers broke mortality;
Now this Path is quiet as an old Sabbath.
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Author:
Kevin Hulme (Pseudonym) (
Offline) - Published: January 28th, 2025 20:33
- Comment from author about the poem: Winston Smith wasn’t the only one who had a bad 1984. In that year I was made redundant at my place of work. I still walk that Path, but in its day people did walk ‘Lowry-Like ; And now like an Old Sabbath, Quiet. I tried to write this like Philip Larkin might have written it, So not my usual voice. ‘The House of Fawkes’ is my name for Parliament.
- Category: Sad
- Views: 16
- Users favorite of this poem: Poetic Licence
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Comments2
Walking to work, the factory gates, the camaraderie. You took me back sometime. Factory closures, redundancy and hardship. That certainly paints a sad picture. How difficult that must have been to navigate. Matchstick men. I am familiar with Lowry. A devastating time for many.
Thank you. The town has never really been the same. Thanks for reading.
This lovely piece takes me back to a time of real communities, everyone worked in the same factory`s, lived in the same houses, looked after each other. When the pits and the factory`s closed the people lost so much, but also the nations fabric was broken. Great piece of writing
Thank you, it’s an all too common scenario, even today.
Thanks for reading.
You are very welcome
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