Friday Poem: "Metropolitan Museum (7/22/98)"

Metropolitan Museum (7/22/98)

Under the full-breasted dome of
Heaven corridors of giant vases
Announce the empty opulence
Of Egypt's vanguished throne

Van Gogh crouches under a moon
Of strangers spreading the starry                                              
Pigments of a hundred soaring
Colors across his canvas nights

Rodin broods in the hallways among
Alabaster women entwined in a glaze
Of passion who sip an endless kiss
Most of us have missed

The walls are draped in innocence
And lore with only naked Unicorns
To protect us from a swarm of
Peeping Toms who cry for more

From my balmy balustrade I gaze
Above bouquets of trees past Central Park
To the silent stands of stone and steel
That shield each day from art

On the terraced steps the tourists quaff
Their bottled fizz  The poor assemble for
Admission but the doors have zippered lips
I slip them through the walls

Around the Met's escarpments pennants
Celebrate the shawl of sun and breeze
The city overflows with honey
Green as the ooze of money

7/24-7/29/98, 8/17-8/19/98, 9/4-9/19/98, 12/24/07

Copyright 1998, 2007 by Maurice Leiter

Posted with permission.