Clearing the Common Woolwich UK.circa 1975

 
 
Twenty acres of dereliction  
Shooters hill close by  
poverty all around,  
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  empty bus stops.  
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,'til  
horseradish once again.  
Then we let wild flowers grow,  
killed the rampant weeds  
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,  shop doorways.  
 Day time sun small boys chasing butterflies,  
ladies picking flowers, forgotten  
since before the war.  
 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 the trains still there  
hhgh rise blocks and factories  
like the poor always there,  
Yet through the veil of smoke  
a glimpse of countryside.  
small boys chasing butterflies  
lovers knots on moon- lit nights,  
ladies picking flowers.