Of Time and the City Page #4

He will not go to war.

He will be safe.

Cometh the hour. Cometh the man.

Cometh the Korean War.

(Explosions and gun fire)

(# The Hollies:

He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother)

# The road is long

# With many a winding turn

# That leads us to who knows where

# Who knows where?

# But I'm strong

# Strong enough to carry him

# He ain't heavy

# He's my brother

# So on we go

# His welfare is my concern

# No burden is he to bear

# We'll get there

# For I know

# He would not encumber me.

# He ain't heavy

# He's my brother

# If I'm laden at all

# I'm laden, with sadness

# That everyone's heart

# Isn't filled with the gladness

# Of love

# For one another #

For Queen, country and the Civil List.

(Applause)

And yet all over the country,

street parties were held

to celebrate the start of

the Betty Windsor show.

When the golden couple married,

in 1947,

the following was lavished

on the ceremony:

Jewellery from other royals,

a washing machine,

a fridge, 76 handkerchiefs,

and for the 10,000 pearls

sewn onto her wedding dress,

Her Majesty allegedly saved

all her clothing coupons.

Even more money was wasted

on her Coronation,

as yet another fossil monarchy justified

its existence by tradition

and deluded itself

with the notion of 'duty'.

Privileged to the last, whilst in

England's green and pleasant land,

the rest of the nation survived

on rationing

in some of the worst slums in Europe

And in 'Bonny Scotland', they gave

Her Majesty a 21 hose salute.

Or maybe they were just taking the piss.

(Singing)

After Korea, EOKA and Mau-Mau,

India had gone, soon Africa would go.

Then Suez as a last hurrah,

leaving only a fading memory

of when most of the globe was red

and Victoria was the first and only

diminutive bourgeois imperatrix.

Betty and Phil

with a thousand flunkies.

"The trouble with being poor

is that it takes up all you time.'

[Willem de Kooning]

The trouble with being rich, is that it

takes up everybody else's.

After farce. Realism.

The heart that beats beneath the heart

is tender, is not savage

It beats in time, though years apart,

from struggles silent marriage

Of storm and stress,

of quiet love

As when the lights begin to fall,

and he just smiles as she just hums

A tune that fitted like a glove

But tapped its rhyme,

still and small, into their room

When nightfall thrums,

a kind of peace that soothes the heart

And lets the years fall

from nought and down

As they shuffle off to bed, apart

Then meet again

beneath the eiderdown

(# Peggy Lee:

The Folks Who Live on the Hill)

# Someday

# We'll build a home

# On a hilltop high

# You and I

# Shiny and new

# A cottage that two can fill

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