Time Warp: 1897-2017 Poem by Sheena Blackhall

Time Warp: 1897-2017
Great-grandsire ran his empire frae this shop
Tradin the milk hurled in frae his dairy ferms

Now it's the Corner Tree Café
Fake Edwardian/ Victoriana theme

Hurricane lamps with bulbs instead of wicks
Hang from the windows, relicts of some where's past
Washed up like trendy driftwood

A railway clock ticks over boxes from Whitstable
Fishmarket cockles and winkles stamped on its sides

Great grandsire's brakkfast wis brose
Fresh frae the udders o his milkin kye
A daud o breid fur denner, hotchpotch soup
Neeps an tatties an ingins grown in his ain kailyaird

Now café clientele chat in the rooms
Scones perch in a birdcage. Vintage wooden boxes
Hold chintzy knickknacks. (Elizabeth Draper- silks and threads
Of Paradise Row in London's Bethnal Green)
Menus are screwed on slabs of smooth planed wood

The dairy cairts aince clunkit ower the cobbles
Muckle cans clink-clinkin as the shelts'
Sheen struck the grun, the cans war reamin fu
O cream tae full toun faimlies cuppies, tins an joogs

Today the menu's firmly cosmopolitan
Café latte, café mocha, expresso
Green tea, Cappuccino, Americano,
The sandwiches are stuffed with voodoo mango
Pesto, hummus, olives, and pastrami
Brie, chorizo, dill crème fraiche et al

Tea-total, ma fermin kin fa ained this airt
Micht hae approved o the liquid represhments here
The café serves up smoothies, mango, papaya
Peach, sweet potato, wild English elderflower
Bollywood dreams chai and E teaket teas
Milk o soya, almond, coconut

Nae waucht o sharn an strae
Nae swyte o wark sypes frae the ghaists
Fa aince vrocht in this neuk
The claik aroon is global an genteel