The Legacy of Orgreave

Many thanks to Madeleine Butterfield of the Royston Womens Support Group for this poem:

 

Legacy of Orgreave

With second sense I see beyond the mask-like smile,

Nausea overcomes me, makes me linger awhile,

I feel the pain exude from this youth,

His face wears a smile but his eyes hold the truth.

 

Hidden in their depths is a fear so stark,

What is it that haunts you, what’s breaking your heart?

Older men gather, please what is wrong?

“Orgreave” they called it, you’ll hear before long.

 

The media spews out it’s lies to the mass,

Enveloping bigots in it’s poisonous gas,

Anger explodes, tension pounding my ears,

What of the youth hiding his fears.

 

His first taste of war dealt by your hand,

Comprehension not able to hold, like trickling sand,

Your need to charge on horses high,

Truncheons silhouetted against the sky.

 

All his childhood teachings erased in one blow,

His friends lay bleeding from brutality you bestow,

Bewildered, defenceless, in your well laid trap,

His last drain of respect for your kind did sap.

 

A panorama of destruction lays in your wake,

“Orgreave in June” hearts seared with the date,

On this day you killed his youth, left a man,

Leaving inside him a fire that time will fan.

 

No amount of reasoning will quell this fire,

Lawmen of our land we brand you – liar,

You sold your souls at our men’s cost,

Our pride still intact, yours you have lost.

 

For history at your feet will lay the blame,

The legacy you leave your fore bearers, is one of shame.