Cloth in-between

“A Dyer’s Thoughts On Looking
At Plain Cottons, Linen And Hessians
Wedged In Between Imported Goods

Down by the docks, waiting in the goods yard
For dyestuff, I’m aware of the presence
Of tangerines, palm stenciled dates, crates of Indian tea,
African coffee, mass-market blue and white plates,
Stacked like Whitstable oysters, the air singed by spices.
I’m also aware, and these days increasingly so,
By what lies sandwiched between them.
Rough cuts of natural hemp and linen sacking
That knowingly – like antiquity Gods – know
Instinctively the ways of these goods.
Crumpled squares that soothe the rough,
Leave well alone, keep well apart for great distances.
Am I insane lingering on the humble cloth or does pure
Thought grasp at the chance of natural affinity?”

Jane Weir (2008), Walking the Block, Templar Poetry, Matlock/Derbyshire, p.30