Torrential rain teeming upon dank streets

The stench of stale urine flung from flee infested tenement dwellings, makes people retch as they venture past

This is daily life in an era of poverty and famine

 

Every child seen playing on the cobbles

have desolate frowns, instead of smiles

on unwashed faces. Teeth black as tar

Toys here being bundles of rags to kick around or bones stripped by ravenous dogs to use as drumsticks

on rusty old battered biscuit tins

 

Country women dragging in cold water from outside

to heat basins of steaming hot water

They lift heavy kettles on and off a smoky open fire

facilitating washing-day, crude washtubs and scrubbing boards being part of the process

This place contrasting its stunning green countryside, with many poor souls living in squalid conditions in those days.  Cheering music and song though, lifting spirits, confounding problems.  People growing closer and holding on to the better memories, in a land rich in history.

The Urban Poet 2020