Salad Poem

(for Henri Rousseau le Douanier)

The sun is shining outside
Henri Rousseau (Gentil Rousseau)
The sky is blue
like your skies
I want to paint the salad
on the table
bright crisp green red purple
lettuce and radishes, ham and tomatoes
Paint them like your jungles
Gentle Rousseau
I want to paint
All things bright and beautiful
All salads great and small
I want to make
Blue skies bluer
Green grass greener
Pink flowers brighter
Like you
Henri Rousseau.

from Selected and Unpublished, Poems 1965-2000. Published by Liverpool University Press 2007.