Maggie Butt
Nylon sheets
This was the future come to pass
test-tube fibres, grown by science
housekeeping purses flew wide
as mouths of hungry baby birds
two pairs for each bed (one in the wash)
Buy British, dream smug in Bri-nylon
bedtime flashed and sparked in pink and mauve
designed by hippies on a psychedelic trip
thus swinging sixties cured the washday blues
no more heaving sodden cotton sheets
between the steamy twin-tub drums
these flew like fledglings, chirruping
replaced the sombre sails along the washing line
with gaudy parakeets, Carnaby Street carnival
dry in a trice and best of all, no ironing
(faint smell of charred bras carried on the wind.)
How did our mothers spend that newly minted time
which made it worth the sweaty, suffocating sleep
the slippery touch, the catching on rough heels
a generation rising charged with static?
Page(s) 102
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