Monday, May 24, 2010

POW Prompt #4: Charles Blackman painting




















Write a poem as a response to the above painting by Charles Blackman (Australian Painter.)


At The Restaurant
It starts with a nap, a rabbit hole
and a luncheon invitation for half past three.
Alice and Bunny, tidy and trimmed for their
matinee date extraordinaire, wait for
their unfashionably late guests to arrive.
Annoyed by their bad-mannered rudeness,
Alice begins the party without them,
orders green turtle soup,
an extra supply of bread and butter and
a raspberry tart with lemon curd whipped cream.
Bunny drinks scalding tea with milk and three sugars.
In the kitchen, Chef grabs the meat cleaver,
shouts, off with their heads!
Alice doesn't think they'll come now,
even if they can get anything they want
at Alice's Restaurant.

9 comments:

rallentanda said...

Ha, love this Marianne...Poor bunny and the scalding tea turned himself pink!

Anonymous said...

thoughts of alice's restaurant went through my head ... but not meat-cleaver-thoughts!

love it, and kudos for fitting "exraordinaire" & "raspberry tart" so slyly in!

~angie

Paul Oakley said...

I enjoyed the splice of Arlo Guthrie's Alice into Blackman's interpretation of Carroll's Alice. One would be put off by the chef's threatening cleaver.

J. D. Mackenzie said...

so many possible links between the original story and 1960s pop culture but you've created one of the best.

Linda said...

LOL -- Marianne, after I read your poem, I started turning that tune, "She's late, she's late, she's missed an important date...the queen I know will have her head, tonight she won't sleep in her little bed..."

What I liked best was the chef in the kitchen...you going beyond the borders of that two-dimensional painting to create a 3D scene. Thanks!

http://lindagoin.com/

Stan Ski said...

Anything they want, but don't critise the chef...
Great post!

Anonymous said...

Fine party. When the chef calms down, send back my compliments. That raspberry lemon curd confection.......

Unknown said...

Sounds like THE place to be. You created a lot of action from this tableau!

flaubert said...

Alice's restaurant love it!
Pamela