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This poem is taken from PN Review 172, Volume 33 Number 2, November - December 2006.

Bread and Butter Dennis O'Driscoll

The rich abundance of the still-life
    painter's palette: glistening
pitchers; pewter kitchenware
    battered like windfallen fruit;
fatted watermelons, grapes
    and apricots; bushy heads
of cauliflower in season.
    And sweetmeats. And bread.
Bread that no more has
    a season than the air;
keeping bakers awake all night,
    worrying over loaves.
A corner is nicked from this roll
    painted with eggshell delicacy;
maybe the artist, unable to desist,
    picked absent-mindedly at
...


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