Memento Mori ( Anacreon )
York Municpal Art Gallery

 

 

The York Museums upper room

Is full of paintings deep in gloom

with things grotesque

     laid on the desk

           Reminding us of certain doom

 

Here a Still Life is arranged

with items , morbid , sick and strange

Brought out from store

     For us to draw

           And every night it’s slightly changed

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Today a skull sits on a velvet drape

A fate from which there’s No Escape

and arranged

     By hand deranged

           In one eye sits a glassy grape

​

A spinning globe in shadow stands

Reminding us of other lands

Come to dust

     As we must

           There’s an end to travel plans

​

In this Live Memento Mori

Heres a sprig of Morning glory

with butterflies

     Though the eyes

           Winding like a horror story

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Two silver cups lie , fallen , there

Once they seemed a happy pair

Someone died

     - of cyanide

           She must have been in deep despair

 

All this troubled living flesh

Won’t be kept forever fresh

It will rot

     Like as not

           Putrify and make a mess

 

There’s an ornamental vase

Holding lilacs and some pears

You will die

     So will I

           we may as well just say our prayers

​

 

lots of gloomy melodrama

dismal Gothic diorama

But - oh look !

     In the book

           Someone’s drawn a purple llama

 

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Anita Greg  11/01/2019