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Teapot

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What to do with the silver plated teapot?

A battered Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll survivor,

its etchings oxidised and pocked with milk spots.

I’ve checked eBay - be blessed if it fetched a fiver.

I leaf Mum’s wedding photos, thumbed and musted.

Here’s her and Dad - their faces, split with pleasure, 

are mirrored in this gift’s felicitous lustre

as if they’ve just unwrapped some genie’s treasure 

that grants the bearers everlasting youth,

eternal married bliss, parental pride,

a spout which will dispense transcendent truth

and countless cups of PG Tips beside.

Reluctantly I find a coin to flip.

Oxfam or recycled metal skip?

🌷(3)

wedding photoswedding memories familyWedding

◄ The price of coal

Loch Garten volunteer ►

Comments

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Tim Ellis

Wed 14th Jun 2023 18:17

Thanks Bethany & Keith. My problem is that my mum was a great collector of many things, and since she died last year clearing out her flat has taken up much of my free time. I’d love to keep all of her stuff but I’d have to buy another house to put it all in! The charity shops in her town have been doing very well recently.

<Deleted User> (35860)

Wed 14th Jun 2023 11:05

A perfectly poetic breath of fresh air Mr E!

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keith jeffries

Wed 14th Jun 2023 10:59

Tim, this poem has sentimental appeal as so many readers will enjoy the nostalgia of receiving such a gift. Time passes and we are the inheritors of such kindness and joy. What to do with it? A glass cabinet with other such trophies of life, I think is best.
Thank you for this poem.
Keith

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