Poetry Friday -The Manchester Man

The Manchester Man

In my twenties
I sold manchester
Irish linen
Quality towels
Nifty napkins
I rose to become
No. 5 best salesperson
In the whole of Australia
-for one week

The office staff
Tina and Marjorie
Charming and cheerful
Smiled broadly
Whenever I entered

Upon my resignation
They burst into tears
So I stood in the doorway
And sang loudly
Don’t cry for me Marge and Tina.

By way of explanation:
Manchester is a word commonly used throughout Australia to describe bedding, sheets, towels, pillowslips, table linen and similar items, yet this is not the case elsewhere. In fact, the use of the word Manchester is one said to be unique to Australia. During the 18th and 19th centuries, settlers in Australia needed to import bedding and other cotton goods from overseas.

In Great Britain, the Industrial Revolution was quickly turning Northern cities into productive zones. One of the cities most influenced by this up-turn in industry was Manchester. The sheer number of textile mills in Manchester led to a large proportion of the cotton goods exported from Manchester at this time ending up in Australia. Merchants and traders would wait at the Australian ports for ships to arrive and buy wooden crates packed with cotton items. Each of the crates, chests or boxes would have been marked with the word Manchester.

Merchants found it easier to use the term to describe the goods. Manchester soon stuck as a word to describe a wide range of cotton goods and remains one which is widely used today. So, I sold manchester...

The poem is a mix of truth and fiction- a hodgepodge. The ingredients were shaped to enable me to create the last line.

What synchronicity! I'm off to see 'Evita' tonight.

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