Black Heart Empire

Come with me, tarry in darkling streets, and we will
Secretly, gaze upon scenes of inked treachery.
Stray into haunted lanes wander this purgatory
Drift in this half-light of urban atrocity.
Wander through this canvas and absorb the countless horrors that prevail.
This Godless realm of dirty deeds detestable and abhorrent detail
This silent leaden dagger’s path portrays a life in grime
And a violent pen-etched horror is revealed.
The cut and thrust delineates a nightmare once sublime
Black heart of Empire’s blood-line fast congealed.
Saunter now in secret ways, indulging in the sweet malaise
Life and death in all it’s outlines.
Twisted faces stare from tenebrous unhallowed spaces.
Gas-lit scribed euphony to backdrops of perfidy.
The gentry, the wealthy, conceited and healthy
Won’t stray from those circles of light;
Unheeding the pleading from mouths that need feeding
And cower in doorways at night.
The aristocratic are most diplomatic
When questioned on those that need most.
But scarce do they care of the misery there
Just stare at this theatre of ghosts.
The grim hordes at The Seven Dials beg liberty from life at any price
Perdition in the rookeries, repositories to lawlessness and vice.
The subjugated play their hands in a game they cannot win
Whilst the workhouse children dream to see the sky,
Crying «sanctuary» in the vivid flare of the lime-light burning bright
Watch the wall as the Gentlemen go by.
The Sabbatarians gnash their teeth at Sunday 'neath three heads,
As the characters weave their way across the page.
Wandering lost to the desperate cost of their lives of creeping dread.
Hedda blows away her pains and the velvet hits the stage.
«I hear St Mary’s bell
Proclaim another rising sun — Six times its' warning.
Once more the pallid horde of souls
Claw through the grime-caked walls.
And praise their new day dawning
In the cold light of morning.»