Shark of the New

Artistic merit is a fragile thing
That stands or falls by price of purchasing;
The cognoscenti therefore tend to rate
Their treasures by the work's completion date.
With trendy youth, good taste does not engage:
Like most investments, art improves with age.

Conceptual consumers are bereaved
To find embalmings dated as conceived.
What Brueghel, Bosch or Goya would be bought
Had it been painted later than was thought?
What vandal, boor or charlatan could wish
To drain sublimity from pickled fish?

Velma D. Hyde