Collage by Lady K
BENEATH PAVING STONES
Beneath paving stones and columns
of a Roman metropolis
time flays golden skins
from bronze men
Palaces glitter on
in twilight years
Sunbursts
that would have titillated
Tut
himself
Kinema carries
an unreeling film
up
to heaven
I feel
I am getting
somewhere
I know the marble steps
the red carpets
each shelf of books
by Kim Il Sung
A solemn conductor
leads kindergartners
A grinning gallery of field hands
applauds
its own song
Youth in a young land
leaps
a stream
Where sailors once docked
farm boys play
Yet the sea still provides
The contented land
I ponder the future
beside a poster
of top-hatted Chief Oshkosh
Our Menominee friends
the teachers
the sturdy millworkers
the quiet-eyed children
with their ever-present ponies
Luxuries
of a lost life
When moviegoing
was high adventure,
extravaganzas
stock-in-trade
And in the end
trampolines
Evangelists
or a wrecker’s ball
Trapped
in holocaust
Grin
to please a god
Lady K
Photo by Lady K
