Flower table

   (a painting by Winifred Nicholson, 1928/9)

 

 

How solid the table

(a place where work is done)

on its corner of rag rug

 

on it you have placed the pots of flowers

auriculas are they, or primulas

I’m not sure

 

I only know how fragile

they look

wrapped in tissue paper

 

plum-coloured flowers, blue-

green leaves

in all that silvery whiteness

 

an offering on an altar

in a sunny room, at Bankshead

 

 

 

First published in The Spectator, 2020