TUCKED AWAY
Tucked away useless facts amassed
over years
As too easily facts cared about
disappear
Useless decades churn, burning
fashion, disgrace,
breaking down barriers, with
Knowledge and distaste, skipping
through years.
As time burns away relics, churns
water, memory scenes,
Buildings, torment, beauty, scenes,
Decades bleed away
To crumbling, demolition,
Greenpeace screams as acid,
alters reality,
Quietly – quietly scream, as bulldozers
move in,
And we’re crushed with worthless
building,
One tucked away at peace and nature.
Races for more are wiping away
growing edges,
nature’s hedges
Beauty once steamed its way in clouds
of vapour through the tunnel,
over arched bridges.
Looking down, but so called progress
marches on,
Grace, silver rails gone, for ugly
screaming motorways,
Gone are the hedges, open green
expanses,
steamers, fire dogs, and door stops,
draughts of the past, barges, cooking
ranges,
spinners, treddles, gone is the coal
pile,
licking warmth of fires, the mangle,
gleaming brass, gas lamp, the scent of
pipes.
We glance back, dark terraces,
pass through past, something must be
better than the
chaos of now: Silent hostility groans.
Togetherness, community gone of
Granger Street,
and yarded row, yesteryears’ hellos
gone with the gust of now,
and tomorrow.
Alison Carr, Bishop Auckland

THE SHEPHERD
The sheep and the lambs
Could hardly wait
As they ran pell-mell
Towards the gate.
For they’d heard
Their shepherd call
Left their shelter
By the wall.
For they were eager
To be fed
So by their shepherd
They were led.
We too are sheep
Of a different fold
We have a treasure
More precious than gold.
For our Shepherd is Jesus
He leads us by love
He feeds us with manna
From heaven above.
Elizabeth Tomlinson, Richmond