still-life

By Adam Gibson

was she Dutch, from Holland or the Netherlands?
I couldn't work it out

she'd done the coffee shops of Amsterdam
but everyone's done that

she had an accent I couldn't put my finger on
and no doubt that's a metaphor for the lot

She said "Van Go", I said "Van Goff"
I should have twigged there and then
And called the whole thing off.

but i was tilting at windmills again,
chasing a dream through green fields
but the only sunflower i saw,
the only tulip i spotted,
the only poppy that popped into view,
was captured, frozen,
in a still-life print on the wall.