‘People talk nonsense and I put them straight’

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People talk nonsense and I put them straight.
Call me brassneck, call me hard-faced
but in this town the people prefer to be steered,
railwayed, run out for the day
to the beach with a bat and ball, then back again.

Look there, the hourglass or the waistline
of a cooling-tower, or here, the pylons number off
across the heath at arm's length,
or take the strain, holding the line. See
from the observation car the world

my way, put that in your pipe
and light it. People talk nonsense
so I put them straight, and I carry no passengers, just
hard freight.