Pension Town Poem by Francis Duggan

There are not much signs of commerce here i only see decay
The shop fronts could do with a paint job the buildings unkempt and gray
You only see aged people here this town has had it's day
Rusty padlocks on the old factory doors and the youth have gone away.

The gray haired man who walked with a cane his movement stiff and slow
Said this was a commercial town up to twenty years ago
But the seventies brought industrial change and the factories were closed down
And the young people have moved elsewhere this is a Pension Town.

This now a Pension Town he said his feelings he could not disguise
For years i worked in the paper mill he wiped tears from his eyes
The padlocks put on the old mill door in nineteen seventy four
And all the other factories followed suit and jobs gone forever more.

My sons and daughters live elsewhere for them there was nothing here
They live and work in distant parts i see them once a year
My eldest grandchild a parent now how quick years seem to fly
On looking back it doesn't seem long since i was a school boy.
boy

There's little signs of commerce here this town is in decay
Rusty padlocks on the old factory doors and the youth have gone away
Two decades back the old man said the last factory closed down
And an aged population here this is a Pension Town.