Coincidence

Found among my mother's papers,  little card 
less than one inch by two. But thick

and sturdy (a whole generation, a world in that sturdiness).

In clear black print on a battered cream background, the following:

Arrow points to your CORRECT weight

ONLY IF you stand still on platform until

red hand stops before dropping coin.

And the purple-stamped date: 13 APR   which, as it happens, is today’s date

how long (half a century?) later. To the right of this ––

below the bold printed Stones Pounds –– a purple arrow points

at the inch-tape figures, in between 2-6 and 2-7.

And below this, in bigger bolder letters:

THE BRITISH AUTOMATIC  Company, Ltd.,

14 APPOLD STREET, LONDON, E.C. 2. 

O city of my birth, where was she coming from, or going,

what was on her mind, was I pestering her, did she need a pause

in the rhythm of her walking, what made her stop in the quietness

or busyness of a London street to weigh (two-year-old me, presumably)

and slip this into her handbag –– evidence for the jury

who weighs it now standing on the floor, the platform

of her cleared-out bedroom

where he waits for the red hand, the arrow, to stop quivering.