Trinkets
When artefacts are placed in galleries,
Museums, or the other places where
They linger, what cultured calories
Exactly do we get from them? The spare
Particulars we have about them tease
Us more than tell us fully what we want.
They are like mourners on a marble frieze
With faces masked in veils of stone. They taunt
Our minds with distant meanings. Cultures far
From ours withhold from us murmured history
At least—perhaps much more—more like a spar
Emerging from a fathomless mystery.
..A priest holds up a talisman outside
….The cave at Delphi. He’s a riddling guide.