Oysters – A Poem

Human consumption of oysters dates back to prehistoric times. The oyster then moves through a period of delicacy in Ancient Rome, back to being poor people’s food in Medieval Europe, a boom period during the 19th century, and back to a delicacy in the 20th, due to overfishing and poor farming. These days, the focus is on ecologically sound, sustainable practices.

Manet painted this work during the boom period, referred to here as The Golden Age of Oysters. I, too, associate them with a Golden Age — my own (though I prefer to believe each age is golden). There is nothing like fresh oysters by the sea.

More of my ekphrastic poetry here. More on the rondine here. A little more on other oyster paintings by Manet here.

Oysters

If it were summer, we could be
back at our beach restaurant. Sand
wiped from our feet, we would withstand
the lure of pristine aqua sea
for rock oysters – raw – cold Chablis,
lemon juice. Salty, silky, slammed.
If it were summer.

Wolf spiders, palms, eucalypt trees,
a wild green turtle glimpsed first hand.
We’d swim from dawn. Stop for lunch and
plate six oysters more. We’d agree.
If it were summer.

©elsp 2026