for Bill Griffiths

nature's analogies
are magnificent

hieroglyphs of truth

   bees

are a model of unified action

and symbol of the good

   wasps

are a model of duplicity

with a useless nest

   vegetables

this tableau is as faithful

as the vegetables

which display the disorders

of free love

   cardoon

an honourable woman

   artichoke

a fallen libertine

Charles Fourier, tr. & ed. Jonathan Beecher and Richard Bienvenu

The Utopian Vision of Charles Fourier