Jet Stream Showers * When civilization falters And darker ages are upon us Among the first of luxuries to go - Jet streams* of clear clean fresh hot water. Like olde folk crouching ’round peat fires of yore We speak to wide-eyed disbelieving grandchildren of soft scented soap cakes scrubbing body In jet streams of clear clean hot water. Of viscous vermillion shampoo massaged into hair More voluminous and glossy than ever they can imagine, Standing in jet streams of clean hot water. Regaling grandchildren With images of thick fluffy towels bigger than togas waiting at hand on warming rack While bathing endlessly in jet streams of clear clean hot water. For Daniel my grandchild Langley Float Home 2008,10,10

* Based on the prose of Ian McEwan's novel- Saturday - description of Henry Perowne showering after a game of squash. NB - A little over 8% of the world population currently has access to regularly experiencing this phenomenon, THEREFORE it's not as if the great majority will even notice its disappearance. shampoo n./adj. - from Sanskrit champa – flower used in fragrant hair oil -    term introduced by a Bengali entrepreneur Sake Dean Mahomed, who opened a shampooing bath known as 'Mahomed's Indian Vapour Baths' in Brighton, England in 1759. His baths were like Turkish baths where clients received an Indian treatment of champi (shampooing) or therapeutic massage; appointed ‘Shampooing Surgeon’ to both George IV and William IV of England. surgeon n. – from Greek - cheirourgia - "working by hand"