All the lights were out on Russia Lane

All the lights were out on Russia Lane

It was just a coincidence

Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood

Was still open

Homeless men stood in the shadows

Arguing about Karl Marx

Referring to child labour

In the East End

And how the poor laws

Were not a final solution

None of them had an address

They were concerned about a cashless society

Infringing their civil rights

Somebody asked if the Zima

Russian restaurant

Was open in Frith Street

The Vodka there was always worth a shot

Everybody laughed

Somebody swore in Polish

People died in a crush

During world war two

Seeking safety in the underground

How is it working people suffer

The indignity of defeat

When the oligarch

Always finds a way to launder

His mistakes in rosewater

The lights flickered

In the Bagel shop

The night was warm with the smell of

Curry from Banglatown

The hurry of late-night revellers

Rolling out of Shoreditch

The bustle of a city

Not at war with itself

But with an underbelly

Of the suffering

Karl Marx mentioned long ago

The blue lamp above

The Police station blinked on…off

London is different

Since Mosley’s brown shirts

Roamed through these streets

And yet

For the proletariat

Nothing much has changed.