Estates of Emergency
Egyptian Kings and Queens once carefully prepared for the long sleep The voyage that would take their other self to some distant paradise Get the rude awakening in the window-case of a foreign museum Exposed and exhibited to crowds as war trophies of a colonial war There is no rest in peace for the vanquished… […]
The Egyptian pre-dynastic burial exhibit The theme of the long voyage in the unknown Provisions offered by the Lady of the Southern Sycamore No ferryman to exact the toll, leaving the penniless stranded When Hathor, the fairest of all, would help you on the way to your star But as you peer in awe into […]
The Territorial Army parading in London on the 2012 Olympics The spirit of Pierre de Coubertin can no longer offended It has long been buried alive by money and politics They go together like the cadaver and the vultures Photo Hugh Ardoin The Estates of Emergency
Walking along the corridors of urban decay Underground passages with unheeded warnings And improbable imitations of Sauron’s Eye A police state with no police Photo Hugh Ardoin The Estates of Emergency Gallery
Strangers in a stranger paradise As the rubberized descend on Regent Street Taking the Sphinx’s riddle on a stride A four-legged future for something lost and found Wonder what will the ferryman’s fare be … Photo Hugh Ardoin The Estates of Emergency Gallery
Wandering along the Thames footpath Somewhere around Westminster, found the flotsam More probably, the jetsam of some shipwreck of times Beyond the brick walls, the fuzzy horizons The unthinkable, almost titanic… Photo Hugh Ardoin The Estates Of Emergency Gallery
Surrounded by razor wire wrought in a crown of thorns A pink playground where a pink elephant touts a wobble The pink swing looks like gallows decorated for Christmas The pink barriers and artificial lawn, a happy dystopian match Waiting for the redundant Halloween clowns… Photo Hugh Ardoin The Estates of Emergency Gallery
While the Islander’s Lawmakers debate wether the Kingdom is an island The “Perfidious Albion” stands white and tall across the Channel Staring at the mainland’s Empire as the game is about who blinks first And the lemmings they are waiting at the top of the Est Cliff and elsewhere For a signal from the skies […]
A message with bottle along the Thames Walk Symbolic allusion to Frida Kahlo’s famous phrase “I tried to drown my sorrows in alcohol, But the bastards learned how to swim” On a riverbank where towers rise their poker faces Swallow whole populations for the night Throw them up in the morning with that hangover taste […]
A brick and stone office tower building Standing tall in the City of London There is a balcony to address the crowds Like the times of Mussolini and his goons But the ruler at the window peeps A pink flamingo he is in full control Photo Hugh Ardoin The Estates of Emergency Gallery