After Cézanne

1

Hardly a fidget within miles
Architecture of the apple
A milk jug turned fluted column
Peaches no fleas of time can blight

An orange so round and still
It’s as though hands had sight
Eyes could touch

Space as scaffold
Bowl as pedestal
Plate as plinth

That table slanted to a critical mass
Its drawer’s spheroid handle
Irrefutably in place

A wine-glass about to vanish in the light
  which strikes it


2

‘The strongest, the most sincere,’
How fiercely he peers out,
A man with a mission
For now frustrated –

Let critics, dunces, dealers
Founder in their own myopia,
Squint a few centimes
Or ten million dollars –

The bluishness of light
Continuing here despite them,
Blending with his beard,

Bathing his massive brow,
That thoughtful eye plumb
At the portrait’s centre



Martin Bennett | Mudlark No. 12
Contents | Gaumont Matinee