Ode to Coventry
2020This two-tone city of sky blue thinkers,
Watchmakers, weavers, bicycle tinkers,
Spon Street drinkers with elephant livers
Who built a canal but buried a river -
Which one of them drank up that idea?
True blue batch eating beer imbibers;
They keep alive the spirit of Godiva.
Churchill's sold-out blitz survivors
Built themselves back up from rubble -
Now elephants live in this concrete jungle,
Never forgetting what this city sacrificed.
Those aren't pests they're pigeons of paradise
Living in the landlocked heart of a nation;
A brutalist city of reconciliation;
A three spired twin city inspiration.
If roads are arteries we're at the centre;
We built the cars those roads were meant for
Driving around our concrete ring road.
Once these were walls of a roundhead stronghold;
Now we welcome all to our bombed-out chapel.
Nativity films and a Christmas carol
Treasured by a people nonsectarian;
Theatre performers and city librarians.
Humanitarians, students, nurses,
We're merciful Mercian charity workers.
Labour electing champions of poverty -
We're all proud that we came from Coventry.