The Manchester Ship Canal - Part One

Glancing down from breathless heights, Amidst climey sighs, The looming colossus awakens from slumber And stretches across Thelwalls linear skies. The hot engines hissing steam - Recalled from fond memories long back - Tumbling like huffing little rain clouds Down from the lofty metal track; Wherein brightly painted carriages: The publicans daughter, the verger, The magistrate, the chief executive - Seated first class, all habitually sat. Swift grandiose arches, a celebration Trumpeting the artful masons cunning devise, Boast loudly of the great towers Parallelogram of terrific forces: Crossing over in giant leaping strides. Here below, like Hercules reclining, The stoic gates of Latchfords black fortress locks Lift to brace against the immense swell Far and beyond the chimming remarks Of Greenhalls absolute, mechanically proven, Georgian bell; When, ensconced within a purpose-built, Purple brick tower: Strikes the centuries old brewery clock On the twelfth Of every God given hour. A rich bankers cantilever Pushes doggedly against opposing, sheer, Red Sandstone walls; Again the mauve and azure rock pigeon claps... And then...coo, coo, cooingly calls. Dry buzzing heat blurs over The hum of a high noons imcumbent midday; The coup-de-gras scimitar wing stoops - To fasten onto its slower-witted prey! Steeped sides slipping amidst tumbling yellow Gorse and sporadic flowers Balk at the foreboding waters edge, Where, over the denizens swirling bowers, The resolute little rusting lugger, Puffing and chugging, relentlessly dredges and scours; Churning the murky Eastham silts That drab Manchester draw: Into the vast hollowing quays On beachless, concrete Salfords industrialized, High-rise dockland shore. Through the deepest part of the black Channel A salt grimed hulk smoothly slips... Attached by a twisted hemp to the tugboat That hauls the great ships. Stirred by the bow waves Flowing and ebbing like currents in time: From the trough to the peak The jettison and flotsam climbs - Before succumbing to powerful undercurrents Of irresistible designs!