Poems of the Week

Not Goghing Anywhere

by Alex Steelsmith

“Young supporters of the climate action group Just Stop Oil have launched a series of protests at prestigious art institutions
in the UK, gluing themselves to artworks… [T]wo campaigners glued themselves to the frame of ‘Peach Trees in Blossom’,
a Vincent Van Gogh from 1889… [One activist said]: ‘As a kid I used to love this painting. My dad took me to see it
when we visited London. I still love this painting…’”
Upstream

Bondily-fondily,
self-affixed protestors
touting the curious
plan they had hatched

said they had chosen an
iconographical
artwork to which they were
very attached.