Wingspan

Whatever else some northern folk do say,
they can’t deny his prowess and his strength,
his manly beauty, height and sturdy limbs
tempered against the sun, the wind, the rain.

Head reaching into space, his feet stand firm
above those coalfields now discarded, lost.
A guardian paying tribute to the souls
who laboured, lived and died beneath the earth.

His stature and his structure testify
to skills that, in this place, built powerful ships;
spanned rivers with strong bridges; opened wide the world,
with rail and locomotive engines.

Perhaps he was designed to stand for those
who followed trades in mines and factories;
who manned the railways, shipyards and the forge,when there was work;
hungered when there was not.

That wingspread, jet plane wide, could well belie the passive face.
Might those wings be inclined
to welcome folk who travel here on trains
and drivers on the motorway below?

Or does the angel herald changing times,
inspire new technocrats and scientists
to show us new horizons, lead the way,
just as those artisans did in the past?

Steel sculpted, rooted deep in coal black ground
A link between stark earth and northern skies,
this angel wears no raiment, bears no sword
Yet guards the future and esteems the past