Museum of Modern Art

They looked at paintings, sculpture, photography

Intent to unlock meaning and to see,

Some passed by without a second glance

Others sought the illusive master key,

Examined each stroke and marvelled or dismissed.

Russian, French, Italian, Japanese

Speaking a hundred tongues, their sentences

Falling upon my ears like scented flowers

Dropping from a clear and azure sky.

I rested awhile and watched emotions play

Across the landscape of each unknown face

And yet I knew them all, descended here

Into the oblivion of daily life.

I saw them crowding down the subway stairs

Or crossing without care congested streets,

Children all of one great God-idea,

Angelic in human form like cherubim,

And all I wanted to do was touch their feet.