Formica is not Sad

Formica topped tables are not sad.

Don’t let that false notion into your head.

They may fill you with nostalgia

Because there was one at home

When you were a little lad,

But it was full of good cheer

And probably red,

With contemporary legs.

It was full of post war optimism

And a practical idea.

It hosted glass milk bottles

And boxes of speckled eggs

And tinned peaches and Carnation,

And the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book

With its beautiful illustrations

Of women, in clean kitchens,

With hair in turbans, wearing neat aprons.

It allowed itself to be wiped clean

With Jaycloths,

That “got you out of sticky situations”.

And was never mean

About hot cups without saucers,

Though it drew the mark at hot pans.

It went with the jolly, abstract patterned lino

Laid over the old, rough, cold stone flags,

And it admired the toughness of Pyrex

Encouraging the making of casseroles.

It held up the pamphlet for ‘Singing Together’

And ‘Listened, With Mother’.