upper bank station
what is it about this station
trains run through but not one passenger alights
in fact no passenger trains run on this track now
only saddle-tank goods trains trucking through
stare at it long and hard
see where the platform ends drop away
cross the boarded walk to the other side
look down to the midland (docks) or up to the junction
to morriston and the valleys or the swansea vale works
see the level-crossing keeper’s stone cabin
with a coal fire and a hearthed kettle singing
nothing happens here anymore
nothing happens here anymore look at
the children dropping chippings down the chimneys
of the trains that engulf them in steam on the
naughty boy bridge galvanised over the line
their shoes scuffed reaching from the triangles
wrought below the top handrail of seeing
nothing happens here anymore
look oh god look at the sparrows stuck
spread eagled dead in the sun-melted tar
under the dislocated grindstone askew
abandoned and as dead as this station
nothing happens here anymore
the old villagers tell of sunday school outings
open carriages full of excited excursions
to the green fields above the smoke
those days never to be seen again
for those days are gone
nothing happens here anymore
than the thoughts of what was upper bank
if it ever was anything at all
something must have happened for us to say
nothing happens here anymore
do you know there is a tunnel right under the station
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