AT THE UNIVERSAL EMPORIUM (OF UNIVERSAL EMPORIUMS)
too many stick-legged statues
things on plinths
it is not
as I remember it
nothing like my old haunt
unless the harbingers
of universal emporiums
within universal emporiums
are not
statues at all
far
from it
here I am wandering
between the chapels and stalls
following my nose
hunting down
hints of
imperium
calculating
how much cement
and marble
it will need
they will need
how many rolls
of fabric too
to craft
a tapestry
tapestry wide
long enough
to record everything
cement-coloured people
springing up
out of nowhere
animal,
vegetable, mineral
once they had
hoped to, promised to
evolve,
become transformational
the dream of thinking
the dream of making
hard to believe
it was once centered here
epicentre of focus
sweetest cosmic algorithim
all disappeared
poems 2 die for 