The Mechanisms

(To the tune of ‘Barbara Allen’)

–

In Camlann town where I was born

There was a beast of iron

Three hundred years remained uncaught

But not for want of trying

–

Deep in the night it clanked and roared

It tore our town asunder

Of metal sheets, of bricks and stone

All building blocks did plunder

–

A price, a price, upon its head

A living wage forever

For any knight to strike it dead

Upon this grand endeavour

–

Go ready me my wheels of speed

My bandoliers and rifle

That I may ride to seek my prize

For all that’s just and rightful

–

For two score years I tracked it down

I would not be outwitted

Though many times my spirit broke

My quest could not be quitted

–

It was the merry month of May

I found its wondrous dwelling

A bower of brick and burnished steel

Formed from our own town’s felling

–

The beast of iron, in times gone by

Created all things useful

It could not cease when the stores ran dry

Its beauty yet was truthful

–

And though I tried with all my might

I’d not the heart to kill it

For few can take a dying world

And still with beauty fill it.