At the Smithsonian...........

Cezanne perched two bottles on
a table cloth- which rested
in messy distress upon a table.
Also, some obligatory fruits,
precisely four-

four? not enough to compose a scene-
too many to look accidental.

We contemplate these fruits,
these anonymous bottles-
Why are they here?
What intoxicant swims inside
the dark opalescence of those
mysterious bottles?
What forbidden poison seethes inside
the lushness of these untouched fruits?

And what form would such sundries
assume today?

Perhaps the sordid remains
of an evening's festivities,
scattered awkwardly for display-
empty bottles, a few liquors, canned energies,
dried syrups, some crass crumbs
sticking to a defiled table-
for the painter's inspection the next day.

7.20.06