The London Eye by Nina 7T

My life began in the Millenium,
Waking up with the dawn of a new day,
Since then, I have been London’s proud guardian,
Looking over the whole city.

Once, I watched a strange miracle:
A beacon glowing inside the walls of the Tate,
Burning my glassy eyes
While the city lay beneath its radiating warmth.

Then the world arrived in a flurry,
I carried the weight of the five Olympic rings round my neck
And tilted my head to watch a thousand wooden bodies
Crowd the river for the Queen’s Diamond parade.

I learnt how a city remembers.
I looked down the banks and saw the stone moat of the Tower
Drowning in a tragic, scarlet tide of petals
Representing the ones we lost.

But my hardest years were later.

The crowds vanished, the streets froze,
And I turned through the seasons completely empty
Apart from the occasional masked citizen running across the street.
I was a giant, hollow ribcage standing proudly over a silent world.

I light up the night,
A glimmer of hope on the horizon
As peace is restored in the darkness,
Covering the sky like a velvet blanket.

Now across the river, my oldest neighbour has finally shed his iron cage.
I watched for five long years as workers scaled Big Ben,
Scrubbing layers of grime from his giant, golden faces,
Uncovering the brilliant Prussian blue of his dark hands.  

As his great holler finally wakes up again,
I keep turning, listening to the heartbeat of my city.