TEA-KETTLE-DRUM. 1975.

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
9.9 x 22.5cm, 4pp Folding card printed only on the inside. Left and right respectively are found:

TEA-KETTLE-DRUM and WATER – LILY – CUP

in a slightly archaic font. The colours of the words alternative black and russet red.
The two groups of three words are able to be combined in any three ways – on the left it can be Tea kettle, Tea drum (a place to store tea) and Kettle drum (a type of drum) on the right Water lily, Water cup and Lily cup (a part of the flower). Additionally the complex words Tea kettle drum and Water Lily cup are in themselves things and have a visual resemblance to each other.
Finally it may be that the mention of the drum recalls the French Revolutionary Army and Bara, the martyred drum boy. The French crown was long associated by the fleur-de-li, a lily. And of course the head of the king (lily cup) was removed when he was legally murdered by the new Republic.
Simple and complex like the best of Finlay and ultimately a “text visual” as opposed to a “visual poem”.