At the turn of the previous century
when both my grandfathers were slowly
getting the hang of walking, toddling, one in ten
of the adult population were employed as domestic
servants. Fewer than this in Hyde, because
we didn’t have the houses, the basement quarters
but it’s an indication of the reality that existed
when the world reached a certain date, and
turned modern. Britain created concentration
camps for women and children in South Africa
and thousands died of malnutrition, but
there were other measures, obviously
Chekhov wrote Uncle Vanya, Picasso painted
La Moulin de La Galette, and a zeppelin airship
drifted rigidly, serenely, above Lake Constance
Birmingham founded a university
A year later, Queen Victoria was murdered
by fate’s crooked arrow (or simply over-eating)
Edward VII,
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, replaced her (even fatter)
A Paris brothel had a special chair built
to accommodate him
He might have suffocated someone
Lenin arrived in Switzerland
Heidi welcomed him with no knickers (but)
Vladimir Ilyich wasn’t interested
Iskra has a new editor, concentrate
The times are changing, brother
.
Steven Taylor