A Late Riser's Miserable Breakfast

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No matter how late the others let you sleep,
You present yourself at the table neat,
And tidy in striped dress and blue pinafore.
Black stockings, black buttoned boots, highly shined,
Neat braids looped and tied with neat black ribbons—
picture of propriety perched upright
At the neatly set table. Betrayed only
By her glum expression, she sulks sadly
Over her cold and solitary breakfast.
Unfair that while she dressed everyone else got
Their lovely eggs hot. Now she faces cold loaf
And tepid tea in the much-detested,
Much-contested checkered mug. And terribly
Unfair that her sister in her red beret
Is already slipping out to the autumn
Garden where she can hear the shouts and play
Of the laughing others as the glorious
Game goes on without her. Miserable breakfast.
What is it this time? Pirates or prisoners?
Princesses of Mars? Egyptian Pharaohs’
Daughters drawing out baskets of babies?
Slaves or mummies in sarcophagi or
The burning of Joan of Arc or crowning
Of Charlemagne or stabbing of Caesar
In the Roman forum? Or rows of rowers
On a galley bound for sunny Palestine?
The peaches and lingonberries and flowers
In the lidded pewter pot taunt and tease
With promised bowers. But she resists the lure.
Never will she eat their bread of iniquity,
Their crusts of captivity nor meekly
Take the toast and tea. Surely if she holds
Out They will see how unjust it all is.
Surely the others will come running back
In, crying that it is impossible
To play the game, any game, without her.
The red napkin flying under her chin
Declares that she will never surrender.

I can’t remember off the top of my head if I’ve posted a Carl Larsson-inspired poem here yet. I have a bunch of them and some of them I’ve published on my old blog and some of them have never been published. And I also have a lot of scribbled notes that are not-quite-poems yet.

I adore Larsson’s beautiful paintings and drawings, especially those that depict his family, a big bustling beautiful family in the beautiful home that his wife, also an artist, Karin Larsson curated.