Smorgasbord Poetry – Colleen Chesebro’s Tuesday Tanka Challenge – Double Etheree – The Duchess

I was tickled pink by the prompt words for this week’s Colleen Chesebro’s Tuesday Poetry Challenge 153. They are ‘Grace and Style’

I have been working on some poems about my family recently and in particular my mother who died at 94 in 2012. She was a fashionista long before Instagram and after she received a Singer sewing machine at 15 she would make her own patterns for the latest Vogue magazine fashions. She made her own clothes and when we all came along she made them for us too. She was renowned for her jackets and fashion flair and always being dressed for the day appropriately, hence the nickname for all her knew her (The Duchess)… and I remember when we were shopping she announced to the sales assistant that she like this fashion brand as they were classic and she would be able to wear for the next twenty years – she was 90 at the time.

Mollie loved pink it was integrated into her outfits at every opportunity and I thought today I would share a double etheree in honour of her grace and style.. using ‘Embellish and Flair’.

The Duchess

Age
did not
diminish
her love of clothes.
She would embellish
the plainest of jackets,
gracing her neck with silk scarves
usually in shades of bright pink.
A colour that she had adopted
when a child as her signature palette.
Her love of pink became legendary
as did her fashion tips and advice.
These included strict instructions
in a letter when ninety,
which jacket she would wear
on her last journey.
Rose pink of course.
Elegant
to the
end.

©Sally Cronin

If you would like to participate in this week’s poetry challenge you have until Sunday to cut and paste your poem into Colleen’s comments: https://colleenchesebro.com/2019/11/12/colleens-2019-weekly-tanka-tuesday-poetry-challenge-no-153-synonymsonly