The Bag Girl by Paul Angus Barber
Just fourteen years old and set to work. Just fourteen years old and I am grown.
To collect the laundry is my job, be they infected or soiled, I mustn’t moan.
I take the stairs many times a day to the splendid inspiring house.
Transformed from within, so I am told, by the caretaker’s beautiful young spouse.
One hour the bags are heavy, the next the bags are light.
Whatever the weight, I glide through the halls staring with wonder and delight.
If not for the war I would never have seen inside; I gush with disbelief.
Yet if not for the war my family would know nothing of sorrow and grief