Tchotchkes

Gauguin, Jug in the Form of a Head, Self-portrait (1889). Kunstindustrimuseet, Copenhagen. Based on a severed head that Gauguin had seen at a guillotining.*

Our ancestors' credenzas were crammed with bric-à-brac:

Wax flowers under glass domes, centennial mugs,

Hand-painted teacups, porcelain figures, Toby jugs,

And old family portraits in rococo frames

Perched on sideboards and buffets in each drawing room,

Beloved photographs of long-forgotten names,

Household shrines of old-fashioned family fancies—

You might say, latter-day "lares and penates."†

Gauguin made a jug of Prado's ensanguined head.

Parlorless, we "curate" such tchotchkes of the dead

Accessorizing our minds, instead, with knickknacks,

Gleaned from the influential online scandal stacks,

Bold salacities of contemporary celebrities,

And fancied heroes of the awesome scene.

How time flies! One picks, one chooses, dude, and then one goes.

Goodbye, it seems, to those amazing bibelots!

*https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jug_in_the_Form_of_a_Head,_Self-Portrait?origin=serp_auto. The jug has a severed ear, in homage (?) to van Gogh.

†Lares et penates: The household deities of ancient Rome; https://roman.mythologyworldwide.com/spirits-of-the-roman-household-the-importance-of-lares-and-penates/?amp=1.