BLACKNESS ROAD
Kate Armstrong
This uphill street’s a chimney for the town
A colour-chart of what was made and done.
For centuries the reek of the age of coal
coated the foundry, tenements, two schools and a mill,
painted the city black, the rabbit-brown
sandstone faces black as basalt until one by one
they were knocked down, unwanted, set on fire;
the homes remain. Year upon year
the giants fell. Still there are tiny shops
nesting below the dwellings. A bus creeps
coughing up, does its best, drops off its few.
Great gaps in the buildings now
let light wash in like the stirring sea
into Fingal’s cave. Stone breathes. The windows shine back blue.
Description: Fixed to a chainlink fence in a disused car park.
Geotag co-ords: 56.45992,-2.98733
Date: 11.06.14
Date: 11.06.14
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