Echoes in Enamel, by Sue Brown, at Stroud Museum

Home Front

(From the Kitchen to the Factory)

Decorated spoons hanging on the wall,

Like so many enamel medals;

Spanners turned to ornaments,

Like so many swords to ploughshares;

The world of home and war juxtaposed

In a museum cabinet of domestic remembrance:

A sewing machine, a cup and saucer,

A register of Daniels’ munition girls

(Like so many schoolgirls in a school logbook),

Sepia pictures of their phossy war work -

Kitchen sink linked to trench sump:

‘Sister Susie’s sewing shirts for soldiers’

(The family gathered round the kitchen table,

The vacant chair at its head),

The telegram boy at the front door,

The tears in the tea cup,

‘And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds’.

Echoes in Enamel, by Sue Brown, is an exhibition about munitions workers at Daniels in Stroud. Get to Stroud Museum soon – I think it finishes on April 26^th.