Three thousand Sunday Roasts
A new metal texture
Offensive to
Augustus Rodin’s eyes
Forced him to
Prematurely age
Balzac - the sculpture
In a urine treatment
His assistants gave.
Not all metal
Is so willfully altered.
Greyfriars Bobby
Has stood in Edinburgh since 1873
The pride of dog lovers.
Aged in place
Tourists rubbed his bronze nose raw.
As a sign of our times a surgical mask
Preserves his nostrils
Intentionally.
No such care was needed
On our gifted stainless steel
Carving dish.
It’s shot surface
Is etched this way
By fifty thousand
Knife strokes,
Out worn
Over convivial
Sunday roasts.
Vulnerability
In general use
Other surfaces show.
Circling my rotund waist
A leather crocodile belt
Shines brighter
Each year I use it
Like the arms of my lounge chair.
Together their patina
Was earned
Embracing me.
Inshore Cassandra 