Dickens

In a time
When the Thames was an open sewer.
Lime masked the corrupt effluent and smoking soot.
Fog hung on grey buildings creeping into every crevice.
Unnatural vapours hung onto the stove-pipe hats and grey drab coats
That came and went like shadows.
A Victorian society built on the ignorance and suffering of the poor.

From the harsh impersonality's of institutions and dirty factories.
A young orphan emerged searching for the vanished happiness.
Armed with the required pen and compassion
He changed systems
That allowed the bleak houses and child prostitution to flourish.

Today I watched the children play.
Uniformed girls sit in a circle swapping gossip.
Boys chased a football that bounced along
The lush green oval like a frightened rabbit.
Having a dickens of a time.