Lorraine Mariner
Tea Cosy
In my mother's kitchen is a tea cosy
made by her mother which has never
been used, and if I inherit it
as my mother did, I will not use it.
It won first prize in a craft competition
at Deal's over-sixties club and because
I was at school at the time and trying
to come first I thought it was fantastic
though we were not surprised because
my grandma was gifted that way and
each of us (me and my mum and dad
and my brother and baby sister) were
probably wearing the Aran sweaters
she had knitted for us when she held
up the tea cosy for us to admire
with hands knotted by arthritis.
It was made using green felt, lined with
something silky, also green, appliquéd
with a girl riding a bicycle, using wool
and pipe cleaners and actual twigs
which I imagine my granddad gathering
for my grandma because he was always
collecting plants, picking the odd flower
from someone's garden and planting it
in his own, but when my grandma died
he wasn't interested in their garden any more
and my mum told me that really
it was my grandma who loved the garden.
And if I don't inherit the tea cosy
(I now have two baby sisters) at least
I will have a poem about it
but knowing my sisters, as we sort
through my parents' possessions, over
tea in my mother's kitchen they
will remember I wrote a poem about
the unused tea cosy and let me have it.
made by her mother which has never
been used, and if I inherit it
as my mother did, I will not use it.
It won first prize in a craft competition
at Deal's over-sixties club and because
I was at school at the time and trying
to come first I thought it was fantastic
though we were not surprised because
my grandma was gifted that way and
each of us (me and my mum and dad
and my brother and baby sister) were
probably wearing the Aran sweaters
she had knitted for us when she held
up the tea cosy for us to admire
with hands knotted by arthritis.
It was made using green felt, lined with
something silky, also green, appliquéd
with a girl riding a bicycle, using wool
and pipe cleaners and actual twigs
which I imagine my granddad gathering
for my grandma because he was always
collecting plants, picking the odd flower
from someone's garden and planting it
in his own, but when my grandma died
he wasn't interested in their garden any more
and my mum told me that really
it was my grandma who loved the garden.
And if I don't inherit the tea cosy
(I now have two baby sisters) at least
I will have a poem about it
but knowing my sisters, as we sort
through my parents' possessions, over
tea in my mother's kitchen they
will remember I wrote a poem about
the unused tea cosy and let me have it.
Page(s) 50
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The