The sun rises over Raekoja Plats

Flooding the ancient square with pastel beams

As from all corners come a-shuffling

The flower ladies of Tallinn

 

Tourists glide past with steaming elk pies

And carved wooden trinkets

As the ladies who welcomed Hitler

(for he was a step up from Stalin)

Set up their creaking tables

 

The ladies lay out flowers and ornate berries

Picked fresh from the roadside

Arthritic bones and a century of memories

Begin another day of begging

 

Around the corner in Empire

Where the shots come in test tubes

And cost five Euros for a rack of ten

The stag parties whirl and crash into life

 

By lunch the crowds are singing

Across town the Freedom Monument

Is drenched in piss and lager

A rite of passage for British warriors

 

I walk past the table

And buy a bunch of flowers

But not from the usual lady

I am told she fell in the night

And has been replaced by her daughter

 

The sun sets over Raekoja Plats.