Dresden Cup
Poland 1943
Found
by the roadside
three cups and three saucers
spare beauties of shape
some hesitant hand
brushed paint over porcelain
blue rise of line along curve onto lip
small wavers in the split
into
horns of a ram
fern tendrils rising in spring
soft curls at the back
of a young daughter’s head
Carried them with her
all through that war
scalpel and morphine
her doctor-hands bloodied
sirens Red Cross ambulances stretchers
her children in Canada safe so little
could be saved.
England 1945
What endures is by chance –
the fragile are made
sacred by circumstance.
Canada 2021
I want
hot black tea, this Dresden cup
warm in my hands, steam pearling the air
afternoon’s burnished half light
to imagine
the artist lifts a cup to the light
tips brush to paint
places one final dot
below each tender curl.

Photo by: Michele Green