Can folk give me some advice on this? I don't want it
to explain, any more than it already does, what
"Kensitas Flowers" were & am hoping it'll come through
the context but I don't know. Also, when I tried it on
my daughter, she assumed tha last verse was pure
invention, that there wasn't really a card with this
on. But there is -I have it, and the rest - and I want
that to come over too, cos if it wasn't real it'd just
be this cleverdick "poetic" ending which I wouldn't
want. Dunno how it'll come through in email but it's
meant to be in 2-line verses and in print it'd have
italics not speech marks.
Kensitas Flowers
Each card opens to show a flower
embroidered on a square of silk,
and a brief history. “There’s education
in them cigarette cards,” she used to say
throatily. She’d ease one, between thin
yellow fingers, out of a new packet
and pass it over. I’d stroke the threads
of moss rose, gentian, sweet-sultan
and read their folklore. Romans scented
their baths with lavender. At Christmas
we’d give her lavender bathcubes,
but they never masked the stale smoke.
I still read her cards, now and then,
getting an education. Scabious
is the widow’s flower, nasturtiums glow
phosphorescent at night, cornflowers
can blunt a sickle. Here’s a pretty one:
its white stars stand for contentment.
Nicotiana, widely held sacred
and credited with great healing powers.
=====
Sheenagh Pugh
http://www.geocities.com/sheenaghpugh
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