Ambition

Courbet went to the Louvre
copied Velázquez,
everyday
after lunch. A
man
on a loan of two
sumptuous lakhs 
goes instead
to ‘Orsay-
a loaf of
bread,
and a red
apple 
hidden in a
Dell rucksack:

Copying Courbet
on pale loose
cotton
papers,
swishing 
charcoal sticks,
darkening trembling
hand on
impoverished
kins
who lived
as timidly 
as
his own
country-
men, or less:
in the Courbet gallery.
How much Courbet
is he? 
How much Velázquez?