Sink Stopper
By Evelyn Araluen
To stop: tinker, replace
Drain and fill
Pop the stopper
From the stove
Drip drop, but sink not
There’s a replacer
Forge the tinker, the failure, the bathtub maker
Sink the top
Drain the lot
And pocket the not
In response to Marcel Duchamp's '‘Bouche-évier (Sink Stopper)’ 1967.
See the artwork that inspired this poem in the flesh, along with more than 100 of Marcel Duchamp’s world-renowned pieces, in ‘The Essential Duchamp’ exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 27 April – 11 August 2019.