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Well-worn

Elma Mitchell

I have worn everything you gave me –
The ring, of course, and that absurd string of beads
Reaching to the navel, and your battered shirts
Full of your energy and our many conjunctions.

And I have worn myself – this body, your tent
Of contentment, once your second skin,
Shrunk now, but serviceable, not yet for the scrap-heap.

I have worn, almost to shreds, our tatty jokes,
Ludicrous memories, and our crumpled rags
Of rhythm and phrase, – old hat, but comfortable.

Everything has been worn, nothing worn out.


Elma Mitchell

from The Human Cage (Peterloo Poets, 1979)

Reproduced by permission of the Estate of Harry Chambers.

Tags:

ageing clothes jewellery late love loyalty
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Elma Mitchell1919 - 2000

Lanarkshire-born Elma Mitchell went south with a scholarship to Oxford, and remained in England, working as a librarian for the BBC, and latterly as a freelance writer and translator. Her compassionate insights into people’s lives were collected in four...
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