far above polluted waters, it stands,
glorious in its knowledge of the view.
ivy-ridden stones cling to the hill,
pushed to the edge by relentless modernity.
do buildings deserve to suffer?
at least, let the libraries fall.
they have been burned by electricity, the useful Nazi,
and the inflammable nature of books
that can never describe fire.
alarm not the students - they know the smoke as clouds,
as the gray that gives them rain and folklore,
spanning bridges to martyrdom.
the rain fills the below, the foam-stained gorges of invisible oceans.
water rises, flooding back over the parapets
into the laboratories and the smug classrooms,
insured only to money.
now, another life begins.
amoeba to man to the century's most unread book.
out climbs the ancient hero.
the sail tightens.
no land ahead.
10.25.98
(
geocities.com/soho/lofts) (
geocities.com/soho)