The following is a poem written by Anthony Matthews for Sunday’s Pretty Vacant walking tour of Drogheda which highlighted the urban decay, vacant and derelict buildings which is a blight on our beautiful and historic town.
Anthony will be reading this poem on a forthcoming episode of the RTE TV Nationwide programme dealing with the dereliction and vacancy issues around Drogheda.
No Sense Of Pride: By Anthony Matthews
Willow weeps, tears touch the incoming flow on The Boyne
Summer, absorbed in beauty five minutes from the town.
Sun’s rays reflect upon a metal bridge, oh so calm the tide
On Narrow West Street, wounded, empty no sense of pride.
Radiating in a repository of history, dark, dull so overgrown
Garnered by greed, speculation, a wish to tear them down.
Homelessness, housing crisis, commercial victims cast aside
Parasites, preying for price increases show no sense of pride.
Vandalised, vacant, void voices, silenced bottled with a cork
Split, separated by outdated borders in Navan and Dundalk.
Stood in splendour how can such dismal degradation deride?
Let down, deliberately destroyed, showing no sense of pride.
Tragic, terrible those taking everything, leave nothing behind
Culpable, cowardly closing your eyes pretending you are blind.
Landscape lost, in limbo, next time let you the people decide
Construct, cement a common culture, show a sense of pride.
