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,

sat forlornly in terraced house rows, feeling void of self worth and purpose.

Where lives once filled with laughter,

at smutty workplace banter,

now lay barren industrial lots,

scattered with moribund lifeless stock.

 

Cigarette ends visible from depressed visitors, who still sat, trying to reconcile and reason the devastating changes.

Perhaps gaining solace from their

brief return to past recollections.

 

Once hailed as the largest shipbuilding townin the world, but now in industrial limbo, huge brewery even succumbing, paving the way to 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.