First one landed, east end stretch, cold summer day
Unrecognizable face, washed up swollen and gray
On the littered and pebbled vacant slipway
the smell of algae and sour decay
Another washes up hours later
A labourer lost footing body floating on Thames shoulder
The tower bridge in construction, a riveter, a scaffolder
Or maybe even a drunken steeplejack
Yet they appeared, slipways, embankments and dikes
Mutilated by hulking aggressive Thames river Pike
If the rats arrived before constable weary-
plainly the body would prove less heavy
One arrived and lay purple and pink on a mudbank
A solitary crow axed with it's beak, thud thud thud
Raised it's head to check for other crows and gulls...
Back to flesh, jackhammering through a lifeless skull
A slight tremble in the crow's neck became evident-
as mitten crabs encroached to hide under the bloat lifting
The stench of it all hit the constable in the rickety skiff
He cursed, and the jet black crow flew off replaced by a gull
Gull grey and white, beady and bold pecked once to stir it
Raised its beak full of carrion to approve the trapped spirit
that a nearby resident angel might swoop down and liberate it
Inquest officer marvelled at steam emitting from the body
The stubborn gull refused to flee...
Toward a shipmast looked, where an angel sat nodding
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