The smell of honest work

I recall machinery
heavy steel
hot grease
flashing movement
innards unashamedly displayed
engineered, precise
heat on skin
room-filling din
presence
no place for mobile phones
and chatter

I recall the sound of metal
straining
set to the task
urged on
barely gaining
man and machine
blood sweat spit
and steam
getting out what you put in
platitude now

I recall shadows
in donkey jackets and hats
boots with studs
dimly-lit yards
running water
soot, cinders
walls of flaking brick
old as railway houses
older
everything black
dark blue or green
no hi-viz vests
or men in tangerine

I recall darkness
yellow lights
high on poles
or concrete
sufficient, just
to light the street
milky headlights
aimed with care
and caution
retinas burned
only with welding flash
or staring at the sun
and who would do that?

I recall iron
brass
and phosphor-bronze
parts as heavy as they looked
heavier
weighed a ton
and really might
cast steel wheels
and levers
spinning like
prima ballerinas
on plain bearings
shaped and shaved
by eye and hand

I recall names
like Firth Brown
Made in Sheffield
Clyde
and Armstrong Whitworth
dates
like 1908
1936 stamped at birth
and still painted
men
like Arthur
Bert and Stan

Now the machinery
is gone
so too the men
their traditions
skills
humility, modesty
craftsmen
who make things work
and keep them working
patience
understanding and respect

Replaced by
instant artifacts
efficient
painless
any colour you like
disposable
cheap junk
that brings, at best
annoyance
unmet expectation
then buried out of sight
machines died to save the sky
but the earth quietly chokes
on plastic

Now lost souls
press silent keys
fluorescent beings
fill the streets
where mums propel
buggies / strollers
from gym to café
in search of something
long departed
innocents aim xenon headlights
20 suns or more
at creeping blindness
in the night

Heritage
a fig leaf for the ‘I’ word
a dirty past
of grime
accept your lot
of thirty bob a week
how do you pay for childcare
and weddings in Mauritius on that?
tame machines entertain
like rhinos in the zoo
taunts of school-kids
tears of granddads
'Danger Hot' - 'Keep Back'
'Do Not Feed'

And in the darkness
somewhere
comes a barking
sooty cough
a hundred tons
of long redundant scrap
rheumy yellow eye
fixed steadily on its path
mildly curious heads
glance up from screens
and see a living
dinosaur drift past
then turn away
confused
unsettled by the noise

Within the fire's glow
conscientious men
a dying breed
wipe good honest sweat
from tired eyes
skilled hands bring life
from water, heat and dirt
the elements
ways known to fathers
grandfathers
tons of hot
living steel slide
turn, tap, groan
and shake the earth
that bore them

From a distance
I watch
recall machinery
modest men
and the smell
of honest work