re-claimed by nature
slag heaps carpeted in green
standing at the rock face
did they see magnificence?

with hammers, picks and crowbars
a future of lung disease
could they imagine
children splashing in the water
picnics near the burn
dare-devil races to the top?

it looks beautiful
she said

this lime kiln landscape of testimony
to hard lived lives past
navigated by a stream of liquor
like some resurrected Christ
wounds for all to see
brutal in their reminder
of a price paid
for this tranquillity

copyright ashyvicar September 2020