Lunch Break Poem by Denis Martindale

The panda likes to eat bamboo,
Bamboozled like it's fun,
He finds bamboo then starts to chew
Until the day's all done.
To pandas, that's the way it is,
As if the only way,
As if it grants some perfect bliss
To while away the day.

That's why his belly starts to swell,
And noises it will make,
Embarrassing, if truth could tell,
Of that, there's no mistake.
Yet there the panda seems content,
Unmoving by the hour,
While other creatures came and went,
And think the bamboo sour.

I've never tasted bamboo yet,
Nor see the need to try,
Nor see the need to buy or get,
Yet yearn to ask him why.
What's this obsession that he has?
What fascinates him so?
He can't tell me, and so, alas,
I guess I'll never know!


Denis Martindale. February 2022.

The poem is about the magnificent painting
by Stephen Gayford called 'Lunch Break'.