A style suggested by a name,
A way of comportment, of playing –
In the merging of ‘line’ and ‘glint’
Necessary elusiveness, hint
Of mother of pearl, ‘nacreous’,
As in the opening, knife-edged,
Of two halves of an oyster.
In the music of Satie there is
Similar opportunism, echoes
And chances taken up, exploited –
‘Striker’ and ‘lion’, a ‘cur’
Hanging around on the off-chance.
Something dabbled, as in a painting
By Seurat, linked dots
That on good days veer towards fable.
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