Social Times

[Delta40]

The jaws of after-life digest car shells
contorted like dripping hot toffee apples.
Rioting flames of violence
swallow up anarchist crowds
trapped at the turnstile of reason.
Cry babies the lot of 'em! spits a pensioner
as the horrors of yesteryear revisit his heart.
In the grey, foggy mist of now,
All the Nice Girls Love a Sailor
Vera Lynn is blitzed out on pills
she earned from alleyway handjobs.
Amidst strips and bits of smoking steel,
garbage and hope is once again
poured down forget-me-not tunnels.
Those makeshift shelters bury the shame of
The men and women of our far flung empire...
Melted plastic soldiers from bygone battles,
solidify into wart-like lumps on our scalps
for us to scratch as we pass the needy.
Flowers are strewn across the entrance
of a wartime dance hall, looted by chavs
sporting stolen clothes and hopeless futures.
Bless em All! sings the Mayor.
A bollocking won't drive souls over the edge,
yet the innocent tumble down the escalator
and smash against the charred walls of the underground.
There in the dark, they join distant ghosts
like old advertisements in the murky trenches,
wailing the social truths of London.

[cl154576]

I loved the rhythm. From 'A bollocking' on it was slightly awkward, though. Later when I have more time I think I'll read it again, but for now that's all I have to say ...

[MystyrMystyry]

It doe seem to be about more than just the riots - as though you've encapsulated the entire recent history of London or (Londoninium!) into a well executed poetic paragraph spanning 70 years

[Delta40]

It doe seem to be about more than just the riots - as though you've encapsulated the entire recent history of London or (Londoninium!) into a well executed poetic paragraph spanning 70 years

Bingo!

[Hawkman]

There is much to like in here delta, Your wit is working overtime, methinks. I loved "the jaws of after-life" But i'm not sure "all the nice girls love a sailor" really fits with Vera Lynn. It goes much further back than that and I associate it more with Marie Lloyd, WW1 and the Music Hall.

What is strongly illustrated though is the complete collapse of the image of the stoic British, "Blitz, we're all in it together, spirit". Now replaced by a smash and grab, instant gratification, lack of self-respect. Interestingly, that Blitz spirit so familiar to the world was largely the invention of one man - Humphrey Jennings, who captured the idea in propoganda documentaries on film and distributed it throughout the world. Not to say that it didn't exist, merely that he amplified it. The crime rates during WWII were rather high, with looting of bombed out shops and buildings and black market goods, etc. etc. It was just swept under the carpet. So, is the Blitz spirit not what we thought it was and is it alive and well after all?

Live and be well - H

As an afterthought: You might be interested in some of Jennings' titles... "Listen to Britain", "Fires were Started" and "Diary for Timothy". These are seminal films which gave a generation it's self-image.

H

[PrinceMyshkin]

This is straight out of Heironymus Bosch, or Goya! Extraordinary.

[Delta40]

Thanks Hawk. I think it is rather a matter of once it was swept under the carpet and now it is newsworthy. All the Nice Girls Love a Sailor was still popular during WWII I believe. I didn't associate it with Vera Lynn but maybe I could have placed it elsewhere in the poem.

Prince - wow! I looked at Bosch & Goya. What wonderful imaginations!

[Bar22do]

well, I tend to agree completely with Prince, it's how I saw your poem, in strong, crude images, painted to perfection!

[Delta40]

Thanks Bar, I'm glad you and Prince saw it that way.

[ucello]

It's so thorough, solid and it has a strange involving rhythm even for one like me, unacquainted with this history details, and maybe because of my ignorance I read much broader a message in this very good poem. Thanks a lot.