Handkerchief............... [the Word Origin Of 'Hankerchief'; Musings] Poem by Bri Edwards

Don't ask how I got the idea. Who would write about a snot rag?
But the idea came into my mind, and on my mind it did nag.
A handkerchief: a piece of cloth used to wipe hands or brow on nose.
Why would I write about something into which a guy might blow his nose?

I don't know why "handkerchief" came to mind while, for a title, I did search.
I suppose even stranger ideas, for a title, from my mind could lurch.
And I never meant to speak of its use, or appearance, or from where the first one came.
Instead I thought I'd write my thoughts about "handkerchief", the name.

So as I lay here wondering what to write...., how to explain the name, .... a thought that I shall share with you...., into my mind came.
Hand-ker-chief, Handker-chief, Hand-kerchief. There! I had it!

A "kerchief" is a scarf-type thing a woman might wear over her hair.
In some places and in some earlier times they are/were common..., but today, I might stare.....
if I saw a kerchief on a head. "What's she trying to hide? ", I might wonder.
A bald head, a bad dye-job, a botched cut? What's she hiding....., "under"?

So perhaps handkerchief comes from "kerchief" and a second word: "hand".
I own a few myself, handkerchiefs, but in my hand one rarely does land.
Mostly they sit in my sock drawer, though one I may carry just in case....,
but it kind of turns me off when a man raises a wrinkled, used hand-kerchief to his face.

(Jan.2013)