The Municiple Dwellings
DAN CULLEN, DOCKER
London 1903
a low-ceilinged hole seven feet by eight
his home one of the Municipal Dwellings
not far from Leman Street
bare floor walls covered with blood
marks of squashed insects
and cheap pictures of Garibaldi Engels
John Burns in his blue reefer suit
and white straw hat
and other labour leaders he knew
his Shakespeare and read
history sociology economics
in the watches of the night
and spoke his mind freely
chosen leader of the fruit porters
fires of the spirit
and after the Great Dock Strike
1889 and every day for years
marked and resolutely disciplined
drilled and starved
and soul harrowed and
broken hearted
feet swollen with dropsy he
sat up on the side of the bed
all day a thin blanket
on his legs an old coat
around his shoulders
penniless demanding his discharge
from Whitechapel Infirmary
though they told him he'd die
on the stairs
alone and finally
gasping for breath
baffled on a pauper's couch
in a charity ward
out of the way the poor
of the earth
hide themselves lonely
together ungrateful
remembered
Contents copyright © 2004 by John Seed
Format copyright © 2004 by Cultural Logic, ISSN 1097-3087.