arts, literature

L. J. De Brouwer: Girl Eating Oysters

Eighteen young Flemish and Dutch authors drew inspiration from the collection held by the Mauritshuis in The Hague. They looked at seventeenth-century paintings through the lens of an alternative history which they then brought to life in short but powerful texts. Inspired by Girl Eating Oysters by Jan Steen, L. J. De Brouwer wrote a two-part poem. ‘They call / us whores, succulent things, raise us to your ears / and you’ll be sure to smell the sea.’

Girl Eating Oysters

1.

As we’re all lustful and like our pleasure,
we bid you welcome to the oyster show. They call
us whores, succulent things, raise us to your ears
and you’ll be sure to smell the sea. We float

through the water, coy and coquettish, and stick
to your rocks, our hard desiring shells
gently caressed by the weeds. We ebb and we flow
and are usually eaten alive, coy

and coquettish, I lick the algae from between
your toes. Whoever pays gets to break our bread
inside the bed, come and peep, bring hither your nose
and your mouth, we are slippery creatures of seduction.

We exist for your pleasure, that’s lesson number one,
come hither and feel the sting in your eye, the oyster knife.

2.

We play a game. I sit, coy and coquettish,
in front of his easel and don the fur-trimmed jacket.
I giggle while he tickles me and think of Marieke,
the love of my life, her radiant, mischievous smile,

when I gently tap her sides. An oyster knife
under his ribcage and working away. Letting the inside
slither out. A savoury, slippery affair.
Watching him flow freely across the floor and then

run to other places. I hear that in the east
one can live more freely, the Levant and its abundance
of dates and figs, the scent of myrrh and cedar. The oysters
are good, I give you that, and later he’ll get smashed again

into a thousand pieces. I’ll be free to love
my Marieke. I can hold that smile a little longer.

• deBuren
• Jan Steen
• Mauritshuis