In the Eye of the Beholder – Jill Eulalie Dawson

The George Crabbe Memorial Poetry Competition
2007 Crabbe Memorial Competition – Third Prize
Adjudicator: George Szirtes

after The Lustre Bowl with Green Peas by W. Nicholson

It’s a black and white copy, a still-life. Nothing moves
in the room, but something flickers inside me
lit by the flame that glows on the rim of this vessel

its cup filled with shadowy smoke rising now
to drift back into the dark wall.
On the white cloth, near the bowl’s foot,

a scattering of closed pods. Clusters of peas sleep
safe in their emerald rooms. But one shell
is unzipped at the seam and four peas wait

for my hand to drop them into the bowl,
making the sound that green bodies
make when falling where they want.

Copyright © Jill Eulalie Dawson 2007