More Patina than Gleam

By Jane Aldous

This series of poems, based in post war Edinburgh, tell the story of Linda, fleeing with her 11 year old daughter from England and an abusive relationship. In hiding as a lady's companion in one of the city's suburbs, mother and daughter settle into their new life in Elsie's rackety house, and encounter a variety of characters who will change their lives forever.
More Patina than Gleam celebrates outsiders getting by in hard times – the day to day grind of cleaning a house, periods, prejudice, ageing, sexuality and falling in and out of love. The poems are not autobiographical, but Jane Aldous, whose own mother used to say that she could have run away with Jane when she was a baby, has gently torn scraps from her own life to add to the collage.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arachne Press
• Release date: Feb 9, 2023
• ISBN: 9781913665791

Jane Aldous

Jane Aldous is an Edinburgh based poet. Some of Jane's poems have been published in literary magazines such as Northwords Now and Southlight. She's been commended in poetry competitions and she won the Wigtown Prize in 2012. Her first collection, 'Let Out the Djinn' was published by Arachne in 2019, and other poems have been anthologised several times by Arachne Press.

Book preview

Leaving

I had to go    couldn’t wait for things

to change     for the mithering    threatening

voice to stop    twisting my mind    I was

worn down by all the taunting    one winter

morning     the girl and I left the house

closed the door    walked out of our life

threw the key away    crossed the bridge

towards the train     as if we were shopping

we turned our faces     pace never slackening

    till we disappeared into the steam and

smog     till we were travelling North    what

I didn’t reckon on though     how my mind

kept harking back    how much I cried

     from now on it’s the two of us

Arrival

No one paid attention to the woman and child

not dressed for snow    standing on the hill-top

path    watching the lights of ships on the Forth

    listening to the calls of ravens and crows

they could have passed for locals     but as the

woman gazed out to sea     she prayed for anonymity

    she wondered why there was a gasometer up

here     buttoned up her coat      tightened her headscarf

    drew the child closer     no one guessed how far

they’d come    exchanging smog for smoky lums

    tonight they’d be in strange beds in a large

genteel house with its own secrets    big windows

and dark trees     tomorrow she’d become a lady’s

companion with an unfathomable future

Children Are From a Strange Country

She could have turned us away

told us she’d changed her mind

instead she opened the door

led us down a bare-wood corridor

with faded rugs

into a room with an oval table

and offered us hot-pot

children are from a strange country

I always think she said

my mother smiled I went red

I never mentioned this again

but was left wondering

if I’d ever make it to her country

and if so when

Two Lads

Until a torpedo hit their ship in the Bay

of Naples    ripped a hole in the hull

caused panic on board     lifeboats to be

lowered    two lads     Ezekiel and Sydney

    had barely spoken    they rowed for their

lives    away from the sinking ship    pitched

and rolled     in another life they’d have been

on a day trip     only there were bombers

overhead    they watched their ship sliding

silently under the waves    after the war they

kept in touch with occasional postcards    until

Sydney Smith    ‘Stick’    Edinburgh tobacconist

twice divorced    got a call one day from Ezekiel

Datlow    picture restorer from London

Saved for a Lost Lad

Demobbed     his home bombed      Ezekiel

felt