Saint Nicolas is Back - or is he?

Where are my Readers? All away?
Don't blame them - it is hot today.
Bus route* through Ixelles soon restored
Workers, hot, trim hedges, bored.

Road traffic lessens, roadworks spread
No wonder those who work, see red
Their daily journeys still disturbed
By arcane détours quite absurd.

Why go abroad with flights on strike
When sun makes Brussels a delight?
Sales in full swing; tourists swarm
Around the Grand-Place in the warm.

But joy of joys, upon the roof
Of «Le Renard» house, quite aloof
St. Nick now back, all neatly painted
Can with tourists get acquainted.

Maybe the casual passers-by
Don't know appearances can lie
St. Nick now rests in his own church
While a replica stands on his perch.

The Grand'Place looks so good today
With rows of raised seats on display
For the Ommegang to strut its stuff;
Though two re-enactments are enough!

What St. Nicholas in gilded clothes
Thinks of this pageantry, who knows?
But the cafés do a roaring trade
So beers in glasses now cascade!

(c) Poet in the woods 2018

* The 71 bus



View of St. Nicolas Church, Brussels



Original Statue of St. Nicolas