What notable things happened today?
This fable is entirely fictitious though thought about after seeing today the memorials to some soul now sadly lost to us from Newton Cap Viaduct, that I photographed and append to this verse.
Newton Cap Viaduct: Eleven Arches
The Land of Aucks they called the home they took,
The Prince and Bishop from those paying tithes
To ruthless clerics. Since then,the mines made
Each Bishop wealthy, from the blood of Mays
Like our Frank, unemployed of old Bondgate.
No work had blessed the clan of May who once
Fed Holy men with hard work and decay
Of bodies shut from green woods where they'd walk.
Old Frank, his buddies called him though he reached
Just thirty years of age. Drunk as a skunk
They often added because, yes, our Frank
Was definitely a heavy drinker
Though none thought him a sad or bitter man.
Quite the opposite.
No one liked better
A chance to laugh out loud with lads he loved
Like the marras his grandad spoke fondly
About who like him bore a pick against
A pit wall till the goaf behind the men
Grew full of empty echoes, its sure fate.
A long and high bridge spans the winding Wear
That folks call Eleven Arches these days
In honour of a site enacting tales
Of supposed heritage, but really
An entertainment; not worth much credence.
Frank May drunk one night on cans that promised
Some sort of oblivion, trod along
The wall of Eleven Arches. Then fell,
Some nasty persons said to infernal
Hell, like Lucifer, the bright who found God
No easy master either.
Frank's dearest
Friend, called Jim, saw fair flowers hang like mould
Once they died, too. But now the highest Arch
Is higher with a fence preventing death
By suicide like Frank's. So though flowers
Still hang to honour Frank, Jim thought decay
Too terrible a thing to remember
Frank by. He stood there drinking Budweiser
In cans, like, frankly, Frank did, tying one
Empty to the space that fence wires made there,
Through which the travesty of history
Can be seen - called Kynren, oldy worldy
Style. The true sad tale that is history
As Mays had known it, received his buddy's
Honour. A can emptied to the last dregs
Was a darling Bud of May to our Frank.
All my love
Steven xxxxx
Steve_Bamlett_blog 