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