An original poem

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big ben is chiming in the background
because this is the english time
when red busses stop
and summer rains with tourists
asking where is the tower
big ben buckingham palace
piccadilly circus
there should be a law
against asking people for money
on the street.
this is the time of the english
with history to be bought for the seeing
without knowing
and wondering without wanting
while waiting for the holidays end.
let them go and come again.
there will always be an england,
until the last tourist goes home.




An excerpt from A Chorus of Voices,
by Kurt Messick
Dry Bones Press, February 2003