The Ending Of Welsh Industry Poem by John A'Hern

Decision made, visit arranged
Industry museum needing change,
Press play and watch Museum screen show
Looking back at Historical flow.

Birth Town that is now a City
Copper production Capital is its claim,
Nicknamed Copperopolis for all to say.
Numerous other industries having their day
Dockyards, easy access, the Ocean at play.

I sit and watch history lessons
Diversity dominates the landscapes journey,
Influences of copper industry and docks,
Illustrated in intricate shapes and forms
That scar aimlessly across the land.

Canals lying overgrown, dormant, and waterless,
Wait for granting of a redevelopment plan.
There is a more simplistic method
Walk away from screen, a few minutes away
In real time, it can be seen.

Disused seams and mineshafts
Turned into museums on the hillsides,
Visible memorabilia of a nation's history,
Meticulously wrapped in reconstructed tourism
amidst a poetical landscape.

Disregarded subjects and objects
Push play to read more on screen.
Historical content and hands-on experience,
All abandoned in favour of touch screen technology.

Machinery encased in toughened Perspex,
The more dangerous dismantled and stored in warehouses,
Never to be seen by Fathers Children,
Health, safety, and technological progression.

This prevents a real-life view of the past.
Take a few moments away from the screen,
Holograph seems real at the time
Have a talk to an ex-miner, a trawlerman, or a sewing woman,
Take time and indulge in real life history.

As you walk through this once prosperous city,
Look at the scars on the landscape around you,
Before it becomes a supermarket, a museum, a leisure centre,
Memories stored in a museum's hard drive.
Enough for today, my heart it breaks.