Mirth’s Prime Ministers by Deborah Tyler-Bennett

Defunct barrel-organ’s crinkle-crankle,
thought forgotten, risen,
derelict theatre’s doves. Re-peopling
the past, until sensed orange-peel,
motley stalls, phosphor, as management’s
meagre boys go touting custom.

An old book’s picture conjures
and you’re seated in Row B with others
waiting a worn-out clown’s benediction –

Grimaldi’s final song.

Leant from his chair, hands raised,
paint’s walnut-wrinkly masquerade,
smile wide as Chaplin’s shoe.

Unspoken chorus: ‘Never Joey’s like again’
scarlet-spangle-spangle, blurring tinsel,
hands pressed to lips when all’s concluding.


Like Mum’s visit to George Robey’s last hurrah,
brought forward on a chair for curtain-calls,
twinkling as the orchestra came forward
afraid to miss him.
Hands’ blessing over in thrown dazzle-dust -
from an Empire’s picked-clean crab shell, flighty doves.






George Cruickshank illustrated the great clown Joseph Grimaldi’s ‘Last Song’ in 1839, George Robey, ‘The Prime Minister of Mirth,’ died in 1954 after several farewell tours.