Mills poems on Hello Poetry

Jay 1988 Aug 2016

Daniel left for work, late last night
Past the rusty cars and sports hall clubs where fat Eddie Shaw got his title fight
Walking the streets, lunch box in hand, through the hard metal gates where the gate house sits
Through the entrance of the steel mills land
There’s a furnace over there blasting out smoke but is smoke all its making?
There’s some politician sitting in his executive suite always just taking
Like you give your life and blood to these mills but it’s never really going to be enough
When times are good my god they’re great but when they’re bad they’re awful tough
Tonight I saw the steelers come from the mills like a snake from beneath a rock
Such empty eyes trying to read past the Westminster lies wondering how much more work he’s got
Then they fall through the floodgates with banners in their hand chanting please don’t close our mills
I’ve a wife at home, and some children to keep, I’ve got a mortgage, I’ve got bills
Into the Concast plant where Big max stands with sweat dripping from his hand
There’s something wrong, is there a conspiracy, is our fate already planned ?
And little Tommy McCann on his first school trip was told this mill’s where your grandfather worked
They want to close it down, his legacy will be lost, they want to raise this mill to the earth
Maybe in some office there’s a plan on it’s way
But it’s getting too late, save our children they say
And the workers who worked there working life at these works still pleading something needs to be done
Daniel he walked into the smoke of the four queens, towering over the houses and chimney stacks, have you ever seen them
Into the furnace, he shelters from the rain, looks up to the stars over the steel town that’ll never be the same
And he remembers as a boy he’d sit on the knee of his grandpa below the pipe from his lips as he choked
Grandpa rubbed my back, his lips pressed to my ear and told me one day you’ll taste the furnace smoke
You see in this town there’s nothing else around and my boy it’s a done deal
The tracks the trains roll on and supports that hold up the towers are all built from this towns steel
One day Daniel you’ll take your place in the line like me and my daddy before me
And when you have some kids they too will work the mills and you can tell them all my steelmaking story’s
Like when I was thirteen years old and watched a man go cold after getting covered in molten metal
And the way the furnace roars then settles down, the Devils cry from hell
Back in the cold air, on top of the furnace, a shooting star shot past him and upon it he made a wish
My grandpa died, back in 93
although I miss him I’m pleased he’s gone so he don’t have to see
The closing of the mills and the tears in the eyes of all the desperate men
Telling their wife and kids they can’t pay the bills and can’t pay the rent
Daniels sixty three now, the mills closed a long time ago
Sits his grandchildren on his frail knees and tells them of the town that once blew smoke
And they stare at him, with amazement in their eyes,
Daniel’s getting ready for work back at the convenience store but his heart’s grown weary and tired
Long after I’m gone remember the words I tell about the mighty steel mills
My darling grandson keep safe those stories, promise grandpa that you will
They were a sacred land in the middle of a town and they should never have closed the beautiful place down
And now all that’s left of the mills and where they stood is some open grass field

— The End —