Sardines Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

Sardines

I opened a tin of sardines
for my breakfast and thought of my mother
the way she smelt coming
home from the fish factory were she put sardines
in a tin can.
Since didn`t have a bathroom for a shower the smell
prevailed until Saturday when she had a bath in a tin sink.
There used to be 22 factories in my hometown
now there is only, one left and it is fully automatic.
Nostalgia cannot mask how awful it was
the so-called old days, the only bonus I can think of
there were no TV, only books.
Never ate the sardines in the tin gave them to
the neighbour`s cat.