To cheer up towns and shoppers
As I was walking in the street
Heard dancing music up ahead
A smiling crowd was gathering
With phones to snap the scene.
Six little robots placed on mat
First a trumpet lifting,
Second a saxophone,
Third was beating drums,
Fourth, fingers plucked guitar,
Fifth had a harmonium,
And sixth an accordion.
All men, dressed in shirts and ties:
Why no females in this band?
The music came from an amplifier
With large battery behind
And a keyboard controlled
By a man in a baseball cap.
“Where are you from?” I asked
As I dropped a coin into the plate.
“From Spain,” he replied,”from Spain”
“Which city, where ?”
“From Santander, from Santander.”
I spotted his wife sitting further back
Patient accomplice, blonde and blue-eyed
“Habla Español? Parla l’italiano?”
“Non, non, Romani, Romani” she said
Okay, so this chirping enterprise
Sneaked from there across the Channel
Through all those costly visa barriers
To cheer up Kent towns and shoppers
With dancing gypsy tunes.
