Oh London

Oh London

Was there ever a time

Before the dead were carried

Out to lie on wheelbarrows

Picked by carrion

Waiting for the fire

To sweep the filth away

That a canary sang on the wharf

The Isle really was filled with dogs

An island

Before the oxbow

In the wild days

There used to be a river Fleet

It lies beneath a street

Where yesterday’s news

Was reported before

Fakery was a photoshop

In a bakery around the corner

The fire began

So much of the old town

Burned down

To the ground where last night’s

Mess lay steaming

Thrown from a top floor window

Teeming into the street

When sewer rats

Lived in the overflow

Bloated bodies

Were tossed into the Thames

To be dragged out

By the undertow

Into the silt off the coast

Of Sheppey

A cannon shot from Chattam

Where the ghosts of old matelots

Are still to be heard

Singing shanties

Outside night clubs

Un-callused

Revellers rock and roll

On a midnight stroll

In bra and panties

It is a youth movement

Soft skin is not a crime

Was there ever a time

Before the new model army

When London was a quiet place

With horses walking at

A stately pace

Quicker by far

Than a journey by car

In the City

Was it ever this busy

Lively and pretty

Was it ever

This good before sewers

Crossrail

Pedestrianisation

Professional buskers

Gentrification

And the Victoria Line.