23 April 2017

Across Westminster Bridge
Ben tolls,
a healing tolling
for those struck down,
a healing tolling
to the bones of their souls,
who in turn keep
the memories of the dead,
the innocent dead, alive.

And the Thames picks up
the tolling of the bell,
and flows with it out
across the known world,
oceans and all
seas carrying it reverberating
to all peoples, and back,
echoing, to the foot of Parliament,
where the tolling of Ben,
joining with the flowing Thames,
write testament to the act,
committed, and by whom,
never to be forgotten.

Philip Kuepper
(22 March 2017)