Satin And Silk Poem by Robert Creffield

There you were always racing against time,
a willing mother, a conscientious worker, a wife sublime.

There you were with your wondrous wrinkles, your drooping eyelids and your starched crisp cuffs to waitress pinafore uniform you ironed so much.

There you were at the filthy hospital kitchen sink sloshing the dollops of patients' left-over dinner bits and your magnificent pride with its iron core, smiling through all that shit.

There you were standing at the bus stop early purple morning or late black night the back stocking line straight and right and shoes polished waxy and bright.

There you were seemingly solid and confident, but really wobbly and light, smoking too many fags through too many disappointed nights.

I touched your cheeks when I caught you crying alone
The tears ran down leaving marks like dried milk
I touched your cheeks one soft like satin and the other like silk.