Bertie Cullen Post-war Chemist

by

Hay Machine

Considering there was only iodine before the war
he was more than contented in his new etherworld
with William the grinning assistant
(must have been chewing the free samples)
terrazzo floors and hardwood doors
closed for lunch
cabinets filled with patent cures
bottles boxes tins and tubes for using
with rolls of lint and cotton wool to swab the orange oozing
separated by royal blue tissue-paper
the likes of which had no other purpose
jars stuffed with orange and black sugar-barleys
Zambuc TCP iodine metholated spirits
nit-combs soap parafin and sun-glasses

Elixers
the sheer promise of it all and the exotic
sachets of Loxene shampoo
sticky plaster on a small tin roll
(within a tin)
pink and blue curlers
hair dryers
toothbrushes nail-varnish Nivia and lipstick
pink shell-shaped purses with nail-files and tweezers
Johnson's baby powder
hot water bottles
and gallons of Benilyn
for all the Winter wheezers

He must have been an optimist
who did he think would ever buy that miniature camera
(rep with the Czech agency had a few good days
idealist hardened now to leaner ways)
bought a bike
and I'd say he had a drum of stuff out back in bulk
for curing scabies
bottles teats Liga-biscuits
nappies pins and clips and plastic pants
for all the post-war babies

And to crown it all
his chrome-rimmed marbled grey-blue iron-pedestalled weighing scales
there was nothing like it

NEXT?
Why don't you look at Disintegrate
by: Elena Toledo
from: Miami, FL, US

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