Raising the White Rose

Under the tarmac

in a car park

in Leicester,

the unresting-place

of a hero or monster;

medievally evil

or misrepresented:

deformed and despised

or well loved and splendid?

Some skeleton facts

pulled out of the ground:

that snake-twisted spine

and those venomous wounds

but fleshier questions

can never be answered

by bare beaten bones

from a car park

in Leicester.

© Gwen Seabourne

 Richard III in a car park in Leicester

Gwen Seabourne teaches and researches in law and legal history by day and by night writes poems. She has had poems on Poetry 24, in various magazines, has had work on R4 Poetry Find out more about Gwen

here .