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