There are fairy folk in Sheffield
They are watching, they are waiting
For the people to forget
The reason why they need the iron.
Sheffield city’s built on iron
Forged and purified to steel
And fairy folk detest the iron
Cannot stand it, cannot touch
The humans when they hold and wield it.
Fairy folk are weak in Sheffield.
Still, they’re waiting in the shadows
Machon Bank is named for fairies
And the humans there who know this
Think of small and pretty creatures
Blessing houses, granting wishes.
They have never seen the fairies
Never heard their voices whisper
Nor have seen their flashing eyes, their
Gleaming teeth, their wings of leather:
They imagine flower fairies
Yet a flower, still, can kill you:
Bluebell, hemlock, deadly nightshade…
But the iron keeps them weakened.
Sheffield is the steel city
But the forges, now are closing
And the furnaces are cold.
The fairies wait. The fairies whisper
Now the humans are forgetting
Why the iron was important.
Nightshade, bluebell, hemlock growing
On the sites of closed down steelworks.
Maykin, Barghast, Jenny Greenteeth
Waiting for the iron to leave us
Waiting to come back to Sheffield.
Watching, whispering and waiting
Soon the humans will forget.
Tom Juniper Poetry 