The Night Glenfell

The Night Glenfell A summer solstice candle breezing midst the twilight air Where aloft the dizzying height of storey twenty four That gazed with envy upon firm Lancaster Green below (brutalist style,) A concrete pitted monument that yearned for the great celeste Brutalist pinnacled cage that cements the scape Where concrete structures eradicate the green And take their place betwixt an urban utopia It couldn’t happen again, not after Lakanal Same thing! An electrical fault on some cheap device And wrong protocol that caused sad loss of life So Grenfell Tower had earned its landlords easy money Their affluence procured from the deprived ( one exit Overlooked rich Kensington and Chelsea. Deprived Grenfell. Extremes of poverty and affluence. Lakanal House fire 2009 loss of life. The deceased given the wrong protocol. No lessons learnt.) The flames played havoc, a creeping plumage that consumed new cladding Where silent souls submitted to the wealth of intense heat Free light for rich Chelsea and Kensington to peruse Across the great divide of worth To witness this sacrificial rite of greed One exit to free them from their plight Secured within this night-time prison Where embers from the debris punctured the sky And fell like tears upon the deep below As the blaze took hold with vengeance square Who knows the fear behind those walls Of those who faced a fate within this burning pyre Stuck in the lofty heights of concrete block Where dwelling upon dwelling saves space And claustrophobia abounds Charred shrine upon the sky-line gray Sad recall for those who remain There but for providence go…. The night that Glenfell