When they announced God's death
and then man's
Art could only count
on an adjourned judgment

so it wasn't long
to wait

I saw pictures
led to market
I saw
I swear I saw
a tear on the ebony cheek
of a Nubian slave
(painting: A Memory from Egypt)

her body cowering under the blows
of an auction mallet

I saw the misery of paintings
distressed by their museum fate
the endless grief of icons
deprived of prayerful attention

yet art remains alive
though swept
by a dark wave
occasionally
to a chosen few she opens her windows
to let in the breeze
of the divine

to the rest she leaves
access at the minimal level
of Profit and Commerce

(1999)

Władysław Podrazik