Among the flasks and vases –
Song to Ming dynasties –
the stillest of still things:
five “plain domestic bowls
from circa 1300”.
Who knows why they’re here.
For contrast simply – drab
against the blue, the dragons?
Or maybe this was kindness,
saving them from work.
All we know is this:
this is no life for them.
How could it be without
the one life-giving thing –
the possibility of breaking?
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