Trapped beneath high pressure
No wind to blow fresh air
City coal fires burning
Citizens unaware
Coal smoke turning toxic
Nowhere else to go
Into houses into lungs
People dying slow
Four days of this agony
Fearful awful smell
Darkness in the daylight
London a living hell
Hospitals are crowded
Deaths are soaring high
No one knew just what to do
In the end twelve thousand die
Then the wind began to blow
The problem disappears
Leaving in its aftermath
A tale of grief and tears
Warm air stuck above us
Coal fires burning bright
Create a killer cooker
For four long days and night
Brian Fahy
6 March 2023
+ High pressure stationary over London for four days, in December 1952, turned the city into a trap of poison as coal fires burned and sent smoke into the air, where it could not rise due to the warm air above it. This smoke turned the air to sulphuric acid. There was no escape.
Erris Poetry 