From Swallows’ In the Shadow of the Seven Stars
The Boneyard
About The Boneyard
DATE: Monday, February 23, 1891
LOCATION(S): East London Cemetery, Plaistow, London; The Crown and Seven Stars Public House, Whitechapel, London; a convent hall near the Swallow Gardens murder scene
SCENE: The funeral for Frances Coles was originally planned for Monday, February 23, 1891. In spite of an unexpected rainstorm, thousands of mourners arrived at the East London Cemetery – only to be disappointed to find that the funeral date had been changed to Wednesday, February 25.
Standing among the cemetery headstones, the only witness to Frances Coles’ murder imagines that can see Frances dancing in the distance behind the sheets of rain. As the day wears on, he catches glimpses of a woman who looks like Frances all over the city, only to have her quickly disappear as he attempts to approach her.
With the day’s events weighing heavily on his mind, he decides he will retire to The Crown and Seven Stars to reflect on the ghostly visions. As he makes his way to the public house, he passes a group of vigilantes intent on capturing Frances’ killer. The group has gathered for their nightly vigil in Magdalen Passage on the north side Chamber Street, a short distance from the railway arch where Frances took her last breath.
RELATED RESEARCH: The Funeral of Frances Coles, Swallow Gardens
RELATED CHAPTERS: A Vision Most Unwelcome
A coal sky
Frames her hollow face
Pale with sorrow
Bloodless, paper skin
Through sheets of rain
See her dancing
In the boneyard
To a sad lament
A bell tower
Composes eulogies
Keeping time
To all the dead hearts
At midnight’s stroke
A raven croaks
Another light grows dim
On the East End
Calling out from the end of the world
Reach to you from the end of the world
On the hollow wind
A melody climbs and falls
Aria from the great divide
A chorus grows
Voice upon voice
A third, a nine
Haunted words
Form a ghostly rhyme
Nightingale
Lying spread eagle
Ripped from stem to stern
In the mud and rubble
A swell mob
Beats a pounding rhythm
In the cobbled streets
Near the convent halls
Through the Swallow Gardens
To the Crown and Seven
Seek oblivion
In a glass of gin
Feel the walls breathe
Hear them rasp and wheeze
Taste the pestilence
In the thick air
Calling out from the end of the world
Reach to you from the end of the world
Calling out from the end of the world
Reach to you from the end of the world
© 2013 Crandall
Performers:
Jeff Crandall – Vocals, Piano
Toni Tinetti – Vocals
Aaron Kerr – Cello
Laura Harada – Violin
Justin DeLeon – Toms, Cymbals
Brett Hansen – Electric Guitar, Lap Steel
Tyson Allison – Electric Guitar