The Potato Eaters

By Richard Mather

Potato eaters –

five peasant women,

clothed in rags,

seated round

a square table

in a brown room.

The scene is set.

Outside the frame,

a famous artist

inspects the dim

and manifold

prospect…

Five chairs,

two forks,

an oil lamp,

a tablecloth,

people, a kettle,

wooden beams.

But nothing –

not a single

thing –

can be fully

described,

recorded, depicted.

Every angle

of vision –

each perception –

refuses to yield

the clock’s essence,

the kettle’s nature.

Perturbed

and defeated,

the artist withdraws.

And the plates,

chairs, women,

clock, oil lamp,

continue to

equally exist

on the flat surface.