Westminster morning

Westminster morning 

The palest light, and the city

slowly wakes to the cleaner

scratching leaves raked from 

barracks' sidewalks,

the guardsmen still asleep.

A street sweeper glides by,

following the rumbles

of the trash truck. Gardeners

at the park tend to flowers

and the windy flutters 

of trash that missed the bins.

It’s been dry; the green

of the trees is graying.

Big Ben in its tower

presides in gleaming,

golden splendor, eyeing

the departure of the PM

from the rear of Downing

Street or the perhaps the fox 

startled by the revving

of police escorts. Bikers are

flying past in their lanes. 

The flag atop the palace 

stands at full mast;

the king is in residence,

and all is well.

Photograph: Big Ben in the Elizabeth Tower, viewed from the corner of Birdcage Walk and Horse Guards Palace Road, London.

Some Thursday Readings

 

Cloak Lane Police Station – A London Inheritance.

 

Walter Crane’s Windows in Clapton – Spitalfields Life.

 

War Memorial, St. Cuthbert’s RC Church, Durham – Barb Drummond at Curious Historian.