Nicolas Flamel and the Parisian Housewives
The grocer calls, ‘Madame?’, sees what her eyes
tell him, what sorcery her order implies:
a palimpsest in the marbling of the ham,
a skeleton of magic inside the roast lamb.
He slices his goods on a tombstone, gives rise
to specks of ancient dust, bakes the grit into his pies.
Some want riches, others youth. He can sympathise
and takes away the scales; desire weighs on every gram.
The grocer calls, ‘Madame?’
Fortunes, hemlines and breasts all rise,
hips sway and husbands obey. They scandalise
their neighbours but don’t give a damn –
with the spark of an alchemist, they’ve rekindled la flamme
and blaze down the street, newly galvanised.
The grocer calls, ‘Madame?’
Note: Nicolas Flamel was an alchemist, reported to have discovered the Philosopher’s Stone. His tombstone was discovered in a Parisian grocery, where it had been used as a chopping board.