The Fur Coats

Movie stars swanked in them Women swooned for them Fur coats, warm and luxurious Mother wore mink, Mink stole, mink coat, Mink muff, mink hat She was a cold woman Cavemen loved furs Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis Indigenous people like its insulation The Inuit folk of the Arctic, Tribes in Russia, Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Scandinavia, Japan, Have been known to step out in it. It's traditional Samifootwear In church on a Sunday Our kirk pews were studded with fox furs Sharp beady eyes, piercing the godly and righteous In the Swinging Sixties, Coney fur swished round the thighs of the fashionista In 1914 the Shah of Persia Wore a hat of Astrakhan when his crown proved to be too heavy, A president's wife paid $6,000 for a coat of the same The Victorians loved it, its heavy, glossy, ornate surface Countess de Castiglione, a mistress of Emperor Napoleon III Posed for photos in a fitted coat topped in the fur But I loved my grandmother's slinky Astrakhan Better than any bear or plastic doll As a child I wore it like a second skin Not knowing it was the tight curled fleece Of a new-born lamb, skinned in Central Asia. I knew nothing about its origin, its cost Only, that it smelt of grandmother, of loving kindness