This is a lovely and very moving handbag related poem I found on the bbc website. WW2 People's War is an online archive of wartime memories contributed by members of the public and gathered by the BBC. The archive can be found at bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar.
'It sat through time, on top of the wardrobe in their bedroom
Always there, brown shabby bag
She kept her memories in it, birth certificates and such, a few faded photographs, old earings, used ration books
Seemed old fashioned to me, as a child
I suppose it was forties in style
With a broken clasp, worn out from past use
