At the Porcelain Factory, Aveiro

Game for anything, they have a live model,
a female partridge, who makes her home
on the factory floor for the whole production run.
She may be chestnut-breasted-
closer to a pheasant than a jungle fowl-
but being a ground-nesting bird,
the sight of a tree-lined avenida
does little to ruffle her plumage.
After the slip-casting, finishing and glazing
nothing pleases her more
than the thought of furthering her fame
in pear trees round the world.