"Down By The Riverside"

The Festival Hall
In the heart of London
The most cosmopolitan
City in the world.
Sat here on a Sunday
Surrounded by Suburbia
For their funday;
Trumpets, Tombones
Light, catchy jazz for free.
A brief respite before
Their dreary nine to five Monday.
A magnet for middle class hordes
And the just passing through
Working class me.
Entertaining, uplifting
Smiles galore
Taking away the world pain
Of Press Photos up on the same floor.
Death and destruction
From all over the world
Horrors and injustice
Dramatically unfurled.
A quick glimpse
And then it's gone
Don't want to spoil the day
Time to move on.
The last thing they want
Is horror to intrude on their life
We don't to upset
The 2.2 kids and wife.
Blood and pain
Death galore
Thinking 'oh how terrible'
And they 'must do more'
With no concern
For the London poor.
Got no time to stop
For that 'Big Issue' on sale
Got to dash home
Got a taxi to hail.
No need to cook later on
'Cos you've been fleeced
At the pop-up world food stall
That has got it all.
How wonderful this foreign food tastes
Doing your bit for ethnicity and race
Making sure your belly's full
While stuffing your comfortable face.
Go back to your complacent bubble
Of Surbiton, Sutton or Pinner
Catch up on today's 'Mail on Sunday'
And decide UKIP's a winner.
Vote to crush those people
Who escaped those photos you saw
Having to doss on our streets
You quickly forget behind your door.
I know I'm generalising
And shouldn't hate the posh
Realising left-wing rhetoric
Can be total tosh.
But at heart I'll always be a
'Gaw Blimey grew up on a Council Estate' bloke
And I can't stand those posh types who play
Mockney-Cockney common-as-muck folk.
What I'm trying to say is
We can't just blame corporate bankers
Time to turn closer to home
And attack some middle class wankers!

Dulwich Poet 16th November 2014

( I was changing my books at the Poetry Libray, which is based at the Royal Festival Hall, by the River Thames, on the South Bank.  There was a weekend long jazz festival there, with some free events, so it was very busy. There was also a free photographic exhibition, which is there every year, for the World Press Awards.)