plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

Willesden in the seventies
Drunks were helped inside
But not
Dennis Andrew Nilsen
Who lived
Around the corner
In a flat that stunk
Of slaughter;
Melrose Avenue,
I do believe.
Not too far
From Willesden Green.
 

Near Dollis Hill
The striking Saris
Had their say:
Twenty thousand
Yorkshire miners
On one long hot summer’s day
in the long, hot summer of 1976.
At the front
Of the Grunwick Dispute
Was Jayaben Desai
Born to give the lie
To racial stereotypes
The striking saris
Just wanted the right
To join the union
And not to be sacked,
En masse,
Like the P&O
Workers of today.