DUTCH MARKET

Oyster

Cap tucked over face
hand pries--
knife slides,
shells clack-clack on top of each other
in gray heaps

she plucks out oyster
face up,
offers it wet in her palm:

shells clatter on top of others
in gray heaps



Cheese

The market tables slump
beneath the weight of cheese
bound in wax and string,
yellow and red, tasty, cold.
How do you know which goat’s cheese
is best? There are eighty-five
kinds. And, how do you know
which brie is best? People here
know their cheeses and wine.
Don’t bring a random bottle of wine
as a present I am warned,
they will know if it is cheap.



Vases

Are each a foot high. I bartered
and haggled them down to six
euros a piece in the old Dutch
market,
swathed them in
newsprint,
cradled them home like
babies.
They were made in
1823, says one stamp
on the clay. They are antiques,
I have studied bottles,
I know how to spot
a fake. These
are
real.