Herbert Lomas
Portrait of a Lady
You’ve given me a garden-piece of yellow marble
With black veins: a diminutive fountain-bowl
With no fountain-hole, on a square marble stand.
A gift that’s hard to understand.
Is it that you were pipped
For a birthday gift and whipped it
Out of dad’s garden? So what
Do I do with it? - sit it in my study like a pot
With a toy badger a child brought along
Inside it? I hate prose. It takes so long.
But someone’s knocked it on the floor
And broke the base. What makes me sore
Is not telling me. I can glue it back
But I’ve an itch to smash the thing - smack
Against my study wall. In deep with you,
I tried to help you: demeaning that, mauvais goût,
Wasn’t it? You’ve loved me, though, more than your fashion -
But: ‘It’s not as if it were a grand passion.’
I’m past my time for a grand passion.
I’ve loved you passionately, after my fashion.
And as for that marble - what a peculiar bit!
Would you know what to do with it?
Page(s) 110
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