One of the joys of this food/art/poem project of mine is imagining life outside the painting, which leads me to research. Information on child labour in the US here. A little look at historic tin toys here. And it’s not just about how people lived, but about how people may have felt.
More of my ekphrastic poetry here. And more on free verse here.
Boy with a Basket of Fruit
before the boy had a basket of fruit
before the boy was posed by the table
before the boy ate a slice of sourdough
before the boy, who was born
at the end of one revolution,
listened to his father read aloud
from the Gazette of another
revolution in faraway France
and was told he was lucky
he was not sold as a ploughboy
or sent to work at the factory
such as other children who
would otherwise be idle,
the boy played in the yard
flicking hazelnuts into a circle drawn
in the dirt under a Seckel pear tree
his tin toy soldiers abandoned
in the dirt before the winter goose pen
ยฉelsp 2026
And if you’re wondering about the Seckel pear, here’s an illustration:
Seckel pear lithograph. Digitally enhanced from Rawpixel’s original 1900 edition plates of Botanical Specimen published by Rochester Lithographing and Printing Company. Image in the public domain: Source
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