Thank You, Ozymandias
I drove tonight along a highway bare
Devoid of any gleam of ancient grace;
A sullen curve of engineering glare
Full blinded by an advertising space
That shameless swore a fleet financial snare.
Not far the city tower’d along the shore
With garish lights and shadowed glassy panes
A hundred needles pierced the clouds’ cold floor
To demonstrate their architects’ proud skill,
While clamoring for rapt admiring gaze
Unmindful of the timeless stars they stilled.
I listened, rapt, attentive to the score
For music ten score years ago that sang
A winged prayer enraptured with the lore
Of vast orchestral Mozart genius played;
Another thousand years it yet will soar
Though cities fall and highway ruins decay.
Just this remains, a fleeting glorious note,
A choir that glass and concrete can’t demote.
