The sound of looms in cotton mills
Coal dust on miners’ faces
Clanking wagons carrying coal
Childhood’s industrial traces
Trolley buses on the road
Women’s coats in cotton
The parade of industrial Lancashire
Gone but not forgotten
All that harshness every day
But still a kindly people
Polished their doorsteps shiny red
And looked up to the steeple
Allotments whippets and pigeons
A pint come the weekend
And going to church on Sunday
Jesus is my friend
C of E and Methodist
Unitarian too
Catholics went to Hindsford
Boys Brigade in blue
Bugling on the Common
Sunday morning game
Football played up Wimpeys
Scoring goals our fame
Lovely church in Hindsford
Sacred sanctuary lamp
Told me that the Lord above
Was here and in my camp
The light of love still flickers
Suffering goes on
And the Lord who died on Calvary
Lives on lives on
Lives on
Brian Fahy
20 March 2022
Erris Poetry 