Crocuses
In this poem, the narrator begins by describing newly grown crocuses emerging from the muddy, early spring ground. The poem takes an alarming shift when the narrator compares the color of the crocuses to the color of bruises on the skin of abused, naked men and women who are being rounded up and shipped off somewhere horrible.
Handbag
The narrator of this poem describes the contents of her mother's handbag. It contains letters her father wrote her mother during the war. The narrator's mother always carried these letters with her while her father was away, and the smell has permeated her handbag, causing the narrator to associate the smell of the handbag with womanliness and war.
Ageing
In this poem composed of two parts, the narrator reflects on the process of aging. In the first part, Fainlight reminisces about her previous writing on the process of aging and how now that she is really old, there isn't much left to say about it. In the second part, she discusses what aging means and how she is unable to do activities that she once enjoyed like rollerblading. In the final stanza Fainlight claims that she only understood aging once she saw a younger girl rollerblading like she used to.
