Embankment

Number 1 of a series on London...

I sit beside a shallow pool,
And watch the midges dance erratically across its surface.
Nothing else lives here.
The promise of lilies has not been delivered
-Or perhaps it is too early or too late for them to bloom?-
The smell of stagnant water mixes with the neatly cut grass,
And the flowers,
And the traffic running behind the hedge.
Children play their games together across the path,
Laughing, joking, and singing.
                “KEEP OFF THE GRASS”
Neatly painted signs keep watch,
Lined up uniformly along the verge.
Close by there is a second pool.
It’s gentle fountain feeds air into the water and so life blooms.
The sullen carp lounge, lazily upon the bottom,
Twitching just enough to move water through their gills.
                “DO NOT FEED THE FISH”

Two monuments sitting side by side
To politicians, or poets I do not recognize.
Both were dug by hard working men,
-Satisfied by a hard days work-
Who have long since died in their beds.
Their names are not listed on the plaques by the waters edge.
And will not be remembered.

"I was neither at the hot gates,
Nor fought in the warm rain."
My name isn’t  listed on a brass plaque
In a forgotten suburb
Ready to be stolen and melted down.



Includes a 2 line quote from Eliot's Gerontion before anyone accuses me of plagiarism