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Charades
Ralph Proops

In the Kitchen
Van Gogh is talking
Matters of Home Economy
With Mrs Beaton.

From the corner of his eye
He sees, swimming in sunlight,
The yellowness of cut Chrysanthemums.

While she is crumbling
Flakes of panned sea-salt
On lemon and avocado.

Upstairs,
Framed by Rimu,
Yeats has found
Madame Curie naked
& in irradiated glory.

There is the salt of Radium
On her lips
As she envelops
His hard seed with her
Ripe avocado tenderness.

After,
Is talk of New Science:
Mutations of how not to love;
The experimental novelty
Of Essential abstinence.

Downstairs again,
There has been a commotion.

Vincent is hemorrhaging against
A flotsam of crimsoning flowers & lemon peel.

Meanwhile,
Mrs Beaton, from her book,
Reads a monograph:

On the Danger of Playing with Sharp Knives in the Kitchen.

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