Memories Of The Mills

By mcscraic

Wed, 16 Dec 2020
  • 549 reads
4 comments
 

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Memories Of The Mills

By Paul McCann

Three to four thousand workers
standing all day to make their pay .
Isn’t it a shame .

There’s no pity here in twenty mill city
for the picker or the doffer’s pain .

Pickers in rubbers lifting bobbins from the floors .
All the doors are closed in York Street .

Coughing doffers with mill fever levered up on legs
barely standing on their feet .

Memories are all that’s left now
as the mills are shut down .
But have the ghosts gone home ?

If you listen you may hear echoes still from the mills
that will chill your blood and bone .

 

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Certificate U
Poem
poemsbypaulmccann
Historical Fiction

Comments

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

Remembering those from so long ago, makes me glad I'm here and not back there when life was so much harder.

A humbling poem that says so much.

Thank you for sharing.

Jenny. 

 

Submitted by mcscraic on

Thanks for your understanding Jenny . It sure was a hard life then .

Kind regards

Paul

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I hope such aweful conditions never come back to the countries that have banned them, and are soon stopped in those which still have such exploitation. I live in a very small town, there are Mill St and Mill Cottages. But in the graveyard all the granite and marble statues are not for those workers who made the wealth. There's a small plaque put up later for the many children that died in the orphanage. No names. All these people and their lives have melted away, their endurance and suffering should be remembered more as in your poem!

 

Submitted by mcscraic on

Thank you for sharing that Di . Its true we have so many tributes and memorials left after they're gone - However wish it never happened . Reconition of their suffering is something we should do . God give them peace . 

Kind regards

Paul