No, the sun won’t shine here
- twigg
- Aug 2, 2024
- 2 min read
Here, the chimneys have since stopped smoking
The buildings’ empty
Boarded up.
But in this old town
The streets
are still
on fire.
And I don’t mean on fire
Like
Damn girl.
I mean
Gun shots
and petrol bombs.
That one was burnt down.
Remnants of black ash
now drips down the facade
As if tears falling from the windows.
Gossip labels it an insurance scam.
Everything is sad and forgotten.
Dormant.
Nothing much remains.
Dirty
Old
Town.
Gloom is in the air tonight
The skies are bleak and wet and grey
Yeah.
The clouds hang heavy
most days.
As if
bulging with doom
As if
a reflection
of what lies
below.
And
the sun won’t shine here.
No, the sun won’t shine.
Industrial wasteland
Rows and rows of boarded up terraces
Metal grates block light that should flood through windows and doors
NO ENTRY
to your home
anymore.
Because regeneration
doesn’t mean
improving things for the people that live there
whose family’s collective memories
line these streets.
The people who have suffered
who have been ignored.
It means
Skimming off the scum
and presenting it as something
Fresh and New
Up and Coming
For a different
sort of
wealthier
group.
Marx and Engels used to drink here,
Plotting out the Communist Manifesto.
200 years have passed
But the same people remain forgotten.
Trampled on.
Pushed aside.
And at the pub across the road
A woman stabbed and thrown over a wall
Her body left to roll
down the bank
into the Irwell.
And
the sun won’t shine here.
No , the sun won’t shine.
But haven’t you heard this area is up and coming
We’re clearing the way for bright young things,
business people, middle classes
“Did you know the BBC…?”
“Yeah”
“Big news”
Now there’s
upside-down houses
that mirror the way we serve this community.
Big prizes go to the one’s who can afford it
Nothing
for those who need more.
No, your homes
aren’t for the likes
of you
anymore.
No, your town
isn’t for the likes
of you
anymore.
So let the heavens open
the rain pour.
And
the sun won’t shine here.
No, the sun has never shone
on anyone
here
before.
