CATALOGUES OF THE PAST IN A SLITHER OF SOAP

Now out of stock (with no regrets):
Sulphur hair restorer

Peroxide toothpaste

The woman pegged in her kitchen work,

                                                servile and serving.

What else?
The cigarette’s golden hour

Pages of rifles and revolvers

Cartridges for shooting rook and rabbit.

Still with us, in nostalgia’s hooks:
The Lion and the Unicorn, refreshed

                                                and striding out.

This little world of England – precious stone in a silver sea

                                               etcetera

Spirit of the Blitz, venerated by those

                             who never knew it.

And this:
(Gone or just below the skin?):

A poster for soap: 

Cussons Imperial Leather – rich, white,

                                                            supreme. 

 (The label, I hear is the last to wash off as it clings to its slither of soap.)

Mandy Pannett
Photo Nick Victor