SECOND BIRTH

We filed inside
My father and I
Row after row of downcast faces
Lives held together
With frayed shoelaces
And the hope of second birth

We'd walk the streets
Week after week
Engineering works
And machining factories
Notice boards
And apprentice vacancies
Finding out that it all adds up to be
A slowing downward spiral

This dirty town betrayed its work force
Workers children's cries then echoed through
The revolutions mills
Where once the spinners rhythm
Manufacturing a deaf defying roar
Now only ghostly silence haunts
The empty floor

Maybe my eyes so inexperienced
Couldn't see the pain
But my heart was washed in admiration
And the love I would sustain
Coloured by the pride inside
And the offerings in vain
As my father held his head up high
Despite the driving rain

Demarcation and slamming doors
A mercy mission on foreign shores
Divided family - dejected son
But work is work
When all's said and done
Shining light of all hope reborn
Weathered through this infernal storm
To the hope of second birth