In an empty museum of precious treasures

Of award winning architecture

Filled with mythic revelation

What good is it to me?

It’s a place to refill water bottles,

Cool off in dim light,

See ten thousand Buddhas and tea

Surround sound videos and demos

And a destination for a long bike ride

While the morning is still cool

And the end of a hot afternoon.

Empty grounds with an emptied lake

In world-renowned landscape

What good is it to me?

There’s one little tree big enough for shade

For Chinese folk tales about a conch shell woman

And cry lonesome self-pity

Like a fleck of dust feels

From an untied knot unraveling

Writing a useless poem, self-absorbed

Outside a grand museum,

With less sparkle in the light

Than a man emptying trash cans

Sifting sludge from the lake shore;

I’m going inside for more.

April 21, 2021

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