The statue

 

THE STATUE

The panels round the plinth, to shield
the sponsor's vanity,
embed his moving in the herd,
confer impunity,

say Bristol citizens erected
Colston's memorial.
But Arrowsmith had to make up
fifteen percent shortfall.

A longer fall had it come down
to cheers and denting crash,
be rolled along the street logwise,
bigger than common trash,

to railings of the waterfront
and river-plunging shock.
It lies on wood with perspex shield
now, and some tried to block

the show with human shield no-show.
Deleted tweets distil
that phase.  Others, not blockers, wish
the fall were longer still.

The above was written in June 2021 for a competition on the theme of shielding, and then not entered, possibly from a misreading of the competition rules.

It has found publication in the online journal _Sledgehammer_.

It owes something to Thomas Ravenscroft's hymn tune 'Bristol', though I don't advise singing it to that tune.  It owes rather more to Roger Ball's post 'Myths within myths -- : Edward Colston and that statue' and Dan Hicks' 'Let's keep Colston falling'.