Delve deeper and tell it like it is
Like it really is.
Don’t shut down your senses
But be the beady-eyed watcher,
Alert to hidden worlds
Spinning behind red brick walls
And white-crossed windows.
Hear whispers of the past
The present and what’s still to come
Twitching curtains.
Sniff the reek of history
(not pigs, that was a long time ago).
Lovers embrace. Taboos tumble.
Victorian values out on the street
Have no place here.
Where free love blooms.
And why not?
Don’t hold back.
Tell it like it is.
Pass the theatre back door.
Once a brewery that flooded the streets with beer.
Killing no less than nine.
Oh yes.
What a way to go!
Go.
Young man, there’s a place you can go.
Same sex. Mixed sex.
Sex sex sex.
Say it again.
(Sex).
Do it enough then paint it as something different.
Irresistible encounters.
Freedom to do whatever you feel:
To have and to hold;
To love and to leave;
To shape a modern Adonis.
Paint it bold, paint it in circles, paint it bright.
Wander by night,
Sketching the stories of these streets.
Like Boz.
Hatches, matches and dispatches,
And everything in between.
The way things really are.
Tell it like it is.
Don’t be down in the dumps.
Lift your spirits; see the joy.
Be bold; be civilised, always,
Screw your courage and follow your heart.
It’s an art.
Join artists and writers
Living in squares, loving in triangles.
Free to express. Free to dream.
Children of light and love.
Hear our prayer.
Christian associations? Organisations?
So the buildings would have us believe.
Don’t believe them.
Or do.
Belief is not the problem.
What’s most important?
A spirit of brotherhood.
And sisterhood.
A world in union.
No need to be unhappy.
I can dream.
Tell it like it is.
Back to facts.
Stay in a plush palace
Where secrets were photographed for the Russians.
To be Frank.
Eye:spy.
Where homeless families broke in
After the war;
Left homeless and hungry on bomb-damaged streets.
Is this what we won the war for?
Or should the strong help the weak?
As for you, dear lady.
Try swimming in a ghost pool –
Hollow Lethe beneath chlorine.
Where phantom frolics giggle
Under Corinthian pillars and Sir’s noble gaze.
London – stand by your girls.
Cultivate an open mind.
Too rare a thing?
Accept people for what they are.
No need for prim and proper.
Be colourful, be eccentric, be a brick
But always stay civilised.
Balance yin and yang.
Count the men you’ve slept with instead of sheep.
(Just be careful who you tell).
Too much? Ah, well.
Time for a break, then.
Hang out beneath Italian glass,
Sit back and take a sip (or three) of England.
Pause.
Jolly good.
Now tell it like it is. Like it really is.
Delve deeper.
How is it for you?
Suzie Inman