After Marianne Moore

There, by the de-barked tree
There was once this figure
An embolismic statue.

This totem

Lessons in the day gone by
The one craved ”you must”
A goblin in the sky

A portent

Beauty is never a reality
It’s the frailly human reflection
The broken images

The broken idol

Here are lessons for men
Here! Long dead long lost
Even to memory – gone, here

In this totem