Poetry

Monday, 24 June 2024

The Heart of Wessex

 Haul away to Salisbury

I'll not be back today

We load the stock

With brick and rock

And Quarrying we may


Well Johnny's on the line ma

He's a rolling car

The buds are blooming in the sidings

The broom and Buddleia


They get on board at Weymouth

They alight thar at Frome

And by the time of Castle Cary

Well there wasn't any room


They've been a holidaying

Down the Heart of Wessex line

But it's alright, the car is tight

Johnny's rolling all the time


Well haul away to Salisbury

And back to Cattistock

We hit bad weather 

At Marston Magna

And Rolled back to West Radstock


Now nevermind Bathampton

Westmoreland or Bath Spa

It's Limpley Stoke

With the Freshford folk

Who'll climb into his car


He never knew a girl before 

Like the one from St Anne's Park

She could quick draw

And from her maw 

She drew a big dog's bark


It was called the Heart of Wessex

the beating Vena Cava

The artery, the pulmonary

The vein and semi quaver


If ever there was a left leg

They'd call it Weymouth Quay

If ever blood went to their head

In Temple Meads they'd be


Now here's the heart of Wessex

A pumping people home

Up and down the West Country

From Salisbury to Frome


Now speaking of a right hand

Across to Clevedon pier

Upon the Cheddar Valley line

All drinking Strawberry beer


Upon the Great Western Railway

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

He built the bridge across the Avon cliffs

Johnny knew him very well


Now Johnny comes a walking

Down the tracks that he once rolled

The tunnels where he blew his whistle

Along strawberry hills he strolled


Now the beating heart of Wessex doesn't

Pump no more of his blood

But the tracks that once held his stacks

Are now covered in his mud


Yes Johnny's in the cab

Shovelling the coal

And he's the steam of fires seen

As the rolling stock does roll


And the body is not working

But it's still living mind and soul

And the ghost of Johnny Firkin

Still hauls down on the Wessex roll


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