6
Still Life with Cat
after Chardin's 'Still Life with Cat and Fish'
The cat is a painter: not quite Chardin,
though he shares his way with the humble
domestic scene, a stroll around the table,
a casual slink past the salver of salmon.
The cat is a painter: not quite Bacon,
though the twisted torsos add a starkness
of motif to the way his garden canvas
captures the art of life and its stilling.
The cat as a painter most resembles
Jackson Pollock: drips of goldfinch yellow
and gashed fleshtone fleck his wren impasto
the expert gaze abstracted, expressionless.
The bird prefers film installations:
a tape of a hummingbird cheating
the jaws of a jaguar with a flicked wing
endlessly loops its imagination.
Stephen Elves poems have been published in various magazines including Acumen, Magma, Orbis, South Bank Poetry, and Envoi. Born in London and now living in Faversham, Kent, he recently completed an M Phil in Writing at the University of South Wales. He is also a journalist who has worked for The Independent and The Times.