Button Box by Lynn White

I loved playing with the buttons

in ‘Grandma’ Kirk’s button box.

She wasn’t my real grandma

but mum’s friend 

who used to have a Chip Shop nearby.

When she died ‘Auntie’ Stacey,

(who wasn’t my real aunt either),

took the money 

that Grandma Kirk had hidden 

under the floorboards,

even though it had been left to mum.

She was a bad ‘un,

my mum said.

The £200 that was in the bank

was all that was left.

She showed the bank manager

the hole in the floor.

He looked amazed

my mum said.

He said to leave it with him

and she heard no more.



I inherited the button box.



*First published in Eighteen Seventy Poetry, August 2020*

About the Poet:

Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. She was shortlisted in the Theatre Cloud ‘War Poetry for Today’ competition and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and a Rhysling Award. Her poetry has appeared in many publications including: Apogee, Firewords, Capsule Stories, Light Journal and So It Goes.