Hirwaun of Long Ago (Poem)

What have they done to my Village?
That busy, bustling place
What have they done to my Village?
Where  folk had a smile on their face.

What have they done to my Village?
Where children were free to roam
To mess about in the river
And carry a stickleback home.

What have they done to my Village?
It’s enough to break my heart
The row of shops that once was
Has been totally ripped apart.

No more ‘oil shop’, Miss Brays and Miss Mason’s
Parry’s Stanley Jones’s and Len’s
The Drapers, the cobblers, the Bakers
The list of shops never ends.

Now the High Street is almost deserted
The shoppers a handful or so
Some of the older Villagers
Still greet with a friendly “Hello”

It’s all in the name of progress
Or so we are led to believe
But when I look at Hirwaun now
What exactly did they achieve?

Glenys O’Gorman  Nee Morgan

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