TIM SAUNDERS
A Question of Art
We uncovered the lost
Fountain of Uselessness
on Cuba Street
where coloured buckets
chuck brackish water
at each other
and it is a prerequisite
of baristas to wear beards
like Edwardian cricketers.
Their caffeine stares pour
round stains on tables,
reminders of conversations
caught in transit over
Organic Cuban
Fairtrade coffee.
We speak of obesity in children,
plastic on beaches, the
unswimability of rivers
while you study dregs
as they spread like
the dark marks on your arm.
Your chipped cup leaves
the bitter black bruise
of an unspoken circle
and we return to the
unsuitability of buckets,
the question of art,
and unbroken rings on tables.