Behind the Architects Crystal Lens

Musee d’Orsay grasps the hands of time. The clock crowns; its gears move around. Gallery-goers lookout and grin from Paris-Orleans to Montmartre; the clock crowns; its gears move around. Each eye’s drawn from inside scenes to the site of Sacré-Cœur without then back again to the Degas. Gallery goer’s lookout and grin locked on the Place de la Concorde, as the hand moves past a boat on the still Seine, and the traffic from Paris-Orleans to Montmartre. Time passes; patron’s heads spin unwonted, as the hands of the clockwork pass, Monet’s lilies await—is there time? *The Retourne a French form from the middle ages. Published in Page & Spine 2015