The Battle for Trafalgar and a Portrait by Van Eyck

The Battle for Trafalgar and a Portrait by Van Eyck

Children sit on big cats

Cast as Buccaneers or Pirates

Dependent on your grasp of history

Proud parents

Capture the moment

Saving it on a cloud

In a neutral environment

Protected from rain and the

Dirt-stained sky

There is a degree of mystery

In the presence of cats

Where there used to be birds

I wonder what happened to them

There was a great battle fought

So very long ago

Probably a lot more than one

Some lost, others won

Although in the long run

None but the bomb-makers

Are ever truly winners.

It is a thankless task to strain

The eyes in an effort to see tall ships

They lie on their sides

Disembowelled

By the elements

Grounded on mudbanks

Gone to the dogs

As far as Limehouse.

There can be laughter

On a sunny day,

Abroad on a tea clipper

In Greenwich

And some people say

Trout have been seen as far upstream as Richmond

Where the view across the river

Is as priceless as the Arnolfini

In the National Gallery

However, dull an inspiration

To the young artist

Such a tableau may be.

It is all a question of appreciation

For the finer things.

As pleasure craft float by

Stuffed to the gills

With foreign visitors

To English shores

Welcomed much more than a thousand years ago

When old world England pulled up its

Drawbridge to keep out the invader

From across the sea

So little has changed it seems to me

In this attitude people

Have for strangers

When there is more danger

From those, we may know

Than from any refugee.

Pick up a flag

Wave it on cue

There will be another display

Of pageantry coming this way soon

Trooping a colour

Running a marathon

Crowning a king

It is part of the cloth

From which this country is cut

Noblesse oblige my liege.