Bread and Butter

The rich abundance of the still-life
    painter's palette: glistening
pitchers; pewter kitchenware
    battered like windfallen fruit;
fatted watermelons, grapes
    and apricots; bushy heads
of cauliflower in season.
    And sweetmeats. And bread.
Bread that no more has
    a season than the air;
keeping bakers awake all night,
    worrying over loaves.
A corner is nicked from this roll
    painted with eggshell delicacy;
maybe the artist, unable to desist,
    picked absent-mindedly at
...