York Municipal Art Gallery - Memento Mori ( Anacreon )

The York Museum’s upper room
Is full of paintings set 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

Today a skull sits on a velvet drape
Reminding us there’s No Escape
and arranged
By hand deranged
In one eye sits a glassy grape

A spinning globe in shadow stands
Mapping out those other lands
Come to dust
As we must
There’s an end to travel plans

In this Live Memento Mori
Here’s a sprig of Morning glory
with butterflies
Though the eyes
Winding like a horror story

Two silver cups lie , fallen , there
Once they seemed a happy pair
Someone died
- of cyanide
Here’s evidence of 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
So let us all just say our prayers

All is Gothic melodrama
In this dismal diorama
But - oh look !
In the book
Someone’s drawn a purple llama

January 2019

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