Shades of the North East past

dwarf the uninviting landscape,

in the form of charcoal clouds,

the consequence of industrial fallout

 

Those who once worked

the glass factory floors

ship yards and coal mines,

sit forlornly in terraced house rows

feeling void of self worth and purpose.

 

Where lives once filled with laughter,

at smutty workplace banter,

now lie barren industrial lots,

scattered with moribund lifeless stock.

 

Cigarette ends

visible from depressed visitors

who sat trying to reconcile and reason

the devastating changes.

Perhaps gaining solace

from their brief return

to recollections past

 

Once hailed as the largest shipbuilding town

in the world, but now in industrial limbo

The huge brewery even succumbing now,

paving the way for regeneration.

 

Progress now miraculously in sight,

seen through the steely eyes

of the Stadium of Light.

New trades

     New places

          New lives

                New faces.

Car plant, retail parks

now replacing…

Coal dust, Stevedores

and blowing glass

Life goes on, in and beyond Sunderland.

Beyond all memories in times past