I recall machinery

Heavy steel

Hot grease

and movement

Engineered and precise

 

I recall the thrum and clatter

of machines set to the task

Room-filling din

Presence

The shouts of men

Heat on skin

Oil, blood, sweat and spit

Getting out what you put in

 

I recall shadows

in blue overalls

Donkey jackets, hats

Tool-bags

Studded boots

Knowledge

Wisdom

and application

Arguments and jokes

 

I recall pools of tungsten light

falling vertically

from rough concrete standards

Dark corners

Yards with soot

and cinders underfoot

Walls of flaking brick

Leaking hoses

Wood-barns filled

with rats and cats

 

I recall intrinsic strength

Components cast and forged 

from iron, steel

and phosphor-bronze

Wheels and levers

spinning with the grace

of prima ballerinas

Boilers, oilers

Turned shafts in plain bearings

Metal shaped and shaved

by eye and hand

 

I recall proud names

like Firth-Brown

Armstrong-Whitworth

Castings stamped with pride

“Made in Sheffield”

“Clyde”

“Tyneside”

“Built 1936”

Maintained by men

with names like Arthur,

Bert and Stan

 

But now the machinery

and men are gone

Craftsmen

whose patience, humility

and pride made things work

Their skills and trades all lost

 

What’s left?

 

“Heritage”

A fig leaf

for loss of meaning

 

Casual work in call-centres,

restaurants and retail

 

Tourism

 

Tell me they’re a substitute

for what’s real

 

It’s alienation

 

And somewhere in the darkness

comes a barking 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 dinosaur drift past

 

Within the fire's glow

conscientious men

wipe honest sweat

from tired eyes

Skilled hands

bring machinery to life

with water, fire and oil

And empathy

 

I close my eyes,

recalling engineering

And the smell of honest work