'My Village' by H M Cobby.

My grandfather introduced me to this poem a while back. It was written by his mother (my great grandmother). She was a gypsy.

I came to this village
When I was ten,
'Tween the downs and
The sea. And then
Who would have thought
It would change so much,
No little cottages
Graced with thatch.
No clear roads
With a horse to catch!
The one village shop
Has long since gone.
Now supermarkets reign
Alright for some.
The fields have all gone
We have houses galore
And by what I hear,
There may be more.
My little green village
Is fading away.
But the pub and the church managed to stay!
Now, the old ones say
Oh! For the days
When life was slower
Before we had this thing
Called power!
Were it to stop
Would the world stop too?
I wonder wouldn't you!

Taken from 'Poems From The South East'. 
Published in 1995. Edited by Glenn Jones.