Myra Schneider
The fur coat
smelt of pamper, showed
he valued her - and she excelled at extracting
signs: asparagus tips in restaurants, best seats
at the opera, suites in hotels that had once
been summer palaces. Appeasement versus
demand was the mirthless game they played.
Though the coat kept winter from her flesh
it failed to warm her taut neck, creased thighs.
Both boasted its softness, cost, continued
with scratch and sulk, threw darts that glittered
with anger, never uncovered the wounds beneath
the words or touched each other with kindness.
When she died he wanted to sell the fur coat,
get his money back, couldn’t. Fumed at daughter:
wear it. She goosepimpled at the idea of stepping
into mother’s bulky shape. After his death
she took it in a bin liner to Oxfam. Cunningly
it hung on, rubbed her raw under the skin.
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