that's very elaborate underwear
did she have the window cleaners round to maintain them?
L
On 12 June 2013 10:35, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Thanks Max -reminds me my granny and her knick knacks glazed -locked
> treasure cupboard
> P cold here in London
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Max Richards
> Sent: 12 June 2013 10:20
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: 'Dainty'
>
> Dainty
>
> Never in her long life
> did my late mother
> have money to spare.
>
> 'Self-indulgences'
> were for other people,
> and not respected.
>
> Folk admired her
> 'dainty figure' -
> she ate so little.
>
> When sixty, widowed,
> travelling at last,
> her selective eye
>
> desired small things,
> lightweight - 'not cheap',
> but 'inexpensive'.
>
> A small white mug
> says 'Killarney',
> a green angler swinging
>
> his rod to cast his line,
> with maybe a salmon
> taking the fly. In Auckland,
>
> it stood for where her father
> had migrated from,
> her Irish talisman -
>
> now my souvenir of her,
> pushed neglected
> behind our useful mugs.
>
> Tiny teaspoons with
> tiny blazons declare
> Hawaii, Acapulco,
>
> Panama - places
> beyond my ken.
> For her, all 'dainty',
>
> they'd fetch up
> at child-eye level
> in her china cabinet.
>
> The unlocked door, grasped
> by her first grand-daughter,
> swung forward heavily,
>
> everything crashed forwards.
> Dainty teapots lost
> their dainty spouts.
>
> Pewter and silver -
> they were OK.
> The spoons survived
>
> to come my way.
> Glancing at them
> I feel clumsy,
>
> overfed, all thumbs.
> Should she be with me now
> in Seoul, Korea, amongst
>
> these women of delicate
> beauty, how she'd rejoice
> whispering 'dainty, dainty'.
>
> I'm saying it for her.
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