ELIZABETH COREY

Aunt Ada's Legacy

My great Aunt's handkerchiefs are beautiful,
lace-edged, hand-stitched

momentoes of an unknown place

or gifts from long-dead friends;
a colourful answer to a head-cold.

I find the perfect four-fold squareswith a silly relief,
I thought I'd lost them
Relics of another era
they speak of the insides of purses
and the hand-held hours pressed

The will of her much more like the iron than these
frivolous fancies she stowed away
As I do a cache of secrets
she passed down hiding the inevitable shame of the body
They are her strong and fine and scrupulous
on the details.

Copyright(c)Elizabeth Corey2011

Elizabeth Corey

Elizabeth Corey, soon-to be- Tessier, is the mother of four wonderful kids and works at Whitehern Historic House and Garden  in Hamilton, Ontario as both a guide and a caretaker.