His gaze swept over Athens. Down below
the bric-a-brac of houses, pillars, trees,
rose up and sang an old hymn, proud and slow,
that murmured softly to him in the breeze.
Who else had stood and, just like him, observed
the evening droop, the whispered winds of time?
Perhaps their gazing kept the place preserved,
held back the cruel decay that was the crime
neglect brought sprawling cities that deserved
their punishment -- destruction in their prime.
He turned and saw a tourist bus disgorge
some sightseers with cameras and maps,
who beat the city in a flash to forge
a gaze across the city with their snaps.