May Days Poem - Red Faced Winston May 1

May Days Poems is a Poetry project where I am aiming to write a poem each day in the month of May. Let's start at the very beginning...

May Day has historical connections for workers and the wider labour movement and commemorates the struggles made by workers to gain fair working conditions. It is observed in many countries on May 1. May day is also a distress call in times of emergency.
On my very first visit to London, some twenty years ago, I witnessed for myself the May Day march when many thousands stepped out on the streets of London. I wasn’t working that day, but neither were they…

May 1

Red Faced Winston

The workers stepped out on the streets of London

Brandishing banners and flags

Singing and chanting

About their struggles

-A celebratory protest

Fierce determined looks on the faces of many.

The police watched on with frowns

The marchers surrounded

Winston Churchill

Who was left red faced

When paint was splashed all over him

He didn’t move

He just stood there like a statue

He was in fact

A statue

The next day he was scrubbed down

by a team of cleaners

on ladders

A work creation project of sorts

Up the workers!

Alan j Wright

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