deepundergroundpoetry.com

The Common Woolwich UK 1974

       
Twenty acres of dereliction      
Shooters hill close by      
Poverty all round,      
Memories of guns and bombs      
Horseradish, rampant weeds      
Dumped in 1945 bricks and      
All the turmoil of a war.      
Red buses, stooping women      
Heavy laden canvas bags,      
Walking home to save a penny      
Passed the empty bus stop.
        
Training ground for armies      
Two hundred years or more.      
See the tower blocks,      
packed homes,look south.      
Saint Paul’s symbol of defiance.  
      
Thirty years had passed      
Yet slums were all around and      
All we had was . . . . THIS!      
A contractor now and then      
To cut the grass,      
Horseradish once again.      
     
Then we let wild flowers grow,      
killed the rampant weeds      
And cleared the bricks.      
Nature returned and war forgot.      
Long grass and lovers knots      
Grasses waving to the silver moon      
No longer need for darkened alleys      
Back seats at the pictures, or      
Whispers in the crowded house,      
Leaning lamp posts and shop doorways.      
Small boys chasing butterflies,    
Observers Book open at Meadow-Brown    
Their homes thirteen stories high.      
Ladies picking flowers,forgotten      
Since before the war.
      
And when the autumn came      
Children seeing drying grass,      
A farmer, tractor and his trailer      
Bringing to the crowded town      
England’s green and pleasant land      
While taking back the hay.      
     
Buses and trains still there      
High rise blocks and factories      
Yet through the veil of smoke      
A glimpse of countryside.      
Small boys chasing butterflies      
Lovers knots on moon lit nights,      
Ladies picking flowers.
Written by Kexby (john rickell)
Published | Edited 15th Jul 2013
All writing remains the property of the author. Don't use it for any purpose without their permission.
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