Orgreave

The site where the Battle of Orgreave happened in June 1984 is now covered by a kind of country park with shale tracks. Next to it are hundreds of newly built homes and it backs onto the Advanced Manufacturing Park, where I work.

There's plenty to say about Orgreave, but I wasn't there. I wasn't even in the area at that time and only saw it playing out on TV. Now, over 30 years later, it seems like ancient history - the iconic photographs of the time are in black and white and society seems to have moved on. But has it?

Thanks to Ian Duhig for helping to finish the poem.  

Orgreave

I weave through the
short cut, the rat run,
where the men ran
from mounted batons.

Narrow, winding roads
bear the brunt
of muscular 4x4s
that now taxi kids
to school

over land that saw
the fist of State
crash into the face
of Justice.

Lives pass in perfect
box houses
and dogs are walked
on red tracks, sniffing
as if they smell the
long dried blood.

Where tabloids spun
their web of lies
the turbines spin;
the memories
are fading now
to black and white

The pit wheels stopped
but turning still
the old film reel
the men in graves
until history proves
just who was right

Tim Fellows 2018