So. Farewell Dick.

They’re queuing up

5000 of them or more

To pass by your bones

In Leicester Cathedral.

Do they come for you

Or just for a chance to be on telly?

But this reburial is better

Than finding yourself

Scrunched up under

A municipal car park.

You lost your horse

At Bosworth Field

But ended up

Under a Ford Fiesta.

A bit ignominious.

I remember you

In flickering black and white film

We watched at school

With Laurence Olivier

Overacting.

Now no-one can think of you

And not hear Olivier’s rasping tones

And see his humpback

In black swishing cloak.

Keith’s Mum says you were a villain

A child murderer of princes

A bully.

Now they’re trying to say

You were a hero, a warrior king.

Is this a whitewash

As laundered as the white roses

Scattered on your coffin?

Or were you really a man

Of scheme and skulduggery?Not even Mr Jones who

Teaches history to Year 6

Will ever be sure about you

Again.