Keeley Halswelle, English
Well, This Was Awkward. Ellie Couldn’t Tell If Her Parents Were Having Sex in There Or Just Trying To Move the Sofa, 1864
Oil on canvas
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Info, or links that point to more info (especially the last here link), about this artist can be found here, here, here (can be read in full for free on Fridays), here, and here, perhaps in addition to what's in his Wikipedia page.
Sadly, the webpage pointed to by the 4th here link has disappeared (with no archive of it). Perhaps other info about this artist is pointed to here (archived, if necessary).
/// Dorrie’s basket, made from rattan mesh,
contains fish which are no longer fresh.
It would have been nice
had she packed them in ice.
Now the stench fouls her clothes and her flesh.
/// Heavy weight from that large rattan pack
gives her pain which she needs to attack.
So she reaches behind
with a balled fist, to find
where to press in the small of her back.
/// Dirty laundry in public? Don’t air it!
But the adage did not say, “Don’t wear it.”
Dorrie dresses in layers
and asks in her prayers,
“It’s my body; can’t I grin and bare it?”
/// A Newhaven Fish-Lassie here knocks,
selling seafood she schlepped from the docks.
If they’re Catholics they might
buy fish for Friday night;
if they’re Jews she has thinly-sliced lox.
/// People looked at the lassie and pointed.
They can smell the fish oil which anointed
every garment she wears,
but the butt of their stares
is her right elbow— it’s “double-jointed.”
/// When you’re peddling fish door-to-door,
better walk until both feet are sore.
People can, if they wish,
eat their own self-caught fish,
so she sells her catch far, far from shore.
/// Is this painting confusing to you?
Look, it isn’t one woman— it’s two!!
One in back, (collar’s red),
one in front, (with no head).
Each one shows a left arm— that’s the clue!
/// Surely, decapitation is shocking,
but the living girl stands, calmly knocking.
Front goes left, back looks right
seeming stunned,
(not from fright).
In that basket, a noggin is mocking.
/// In her basket, should one care to snoop,
there’s not one body part, but a group.
The headless fish-lassie
had gotten too sassy
selling “Whitechapel Jack” fish-head soup.
/// In beheadings, it can be a perk
if nearby, with a basket, you lurk.
I hear Madame Tussaud
pays for models. You know,
that’s called getting ahead in your work.