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MAURICE'S APPLES
Stephen Boyce
Of twenty impressions this is number five -
not including the artist's proof -
the variations
hardly perceptible,
perhaps the tone veers towards sepia
though the fruit's shape and ample size are fine
and the texture of skin accurate,
slightly
coarse to the touch,
streaked
with fire.
And the knife laid beside is right - he would
quarter
the fruit cleanly, neatly prising out the core's
curve
to leave a little boat rocking on its green hull.
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The evening glow is at odds
with what he would call a breakfast apple
best eaten straight from the tree
in the cool of the morning, flesh crisp
between
the teeth, satisfying to the bite,
not tart but tangy, a man-woman apple,
starting out brash, pleased with itself,
cocksure,
demanding
later becoming rather blowsy, warm-hearted
enduring, a Sunday apple.
The image pleases the eye first of all
and, like the apple itself,
is well
proportioned, keen and voluptuous,
promises to quench both hunger and thirst.
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