A vivid and affectionate portrait of the mill girls of Paisley in the glory days of the town's thread industry.
Mo Blake, the author, is one of four women writers contributing to Mill Girls, an anthology of poems remembering and celebrating the jest for life and resilience of the young women in the industrial world of Scotland's past (Weaving Musical Threads, £5.99).
A STREAK OF GALLUS
A streak of gallus ran in
Messages tossed from lips
Mouthed out through the racket
Of machines ratching, clattering
Jarring the nerves to exaggerated speech
Mill lassies mouthy
Crude yet carefully modest
Machines scattering tic tac
Codes from line to line
Menage payments affording
The latest fashion
Then turbans of curlers undone
Arms linked like a Paisley pattern
On their way to the dancing
Threading through streets
Marching, laughing, singing,
Scanning for talent
Gallus lassies, pure dead gallus.
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