Death in Trafalgar Square - January

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depending on the weather - freezing mitts

no good for chalking or for singing

Adele songs become a frozen wail

her cds barely selling from the singer's pail

the next one tries with some Ed Sheeran hits

 

beside the flags of Many Nations done in chalk

starting with England - ending up with Kazakstan

after Barbuda and Saint Kitts

Australia and Paraguay

via India Brazil and France

and China , Ethiopia and Chad

and Eire which it's still called here

I think they're copied from

a children's encyclopedia

from nineteen fifty something . The idea

is put some coins on the flag

to vote the one most popular

- it isn’t serious - there’s a guy - friend of the chalker

I suppose

who scoops the money up and puts it in a jar

 

but looming high above them all

the Many Nations' flags and Yoda , Ed ,

is Death

or someone dressed as Death - presumably -

he floats above the pedestal - it is a trick

of living statues done with scaffolding

 

when I say He - assuming its a bloke

hes very tall - eight foot - and floating in his cloak

but no one wants to pose with him - not even as a joke

 

for coins he has a Roses box to put the money in

connected to his pedestal , a piece of strong black string

I have never seen anyone put in anything

 

it makes me wonder why he's standing there

with scythe and skull , doing that empty sockets stare

 dark hooded in Trafalgar Square

 

 

 

 Anita Greg 05/01/2019

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