A last look at the painting Guernica before we forget

Quickly the last flash makes a fluttering
salute to history as we file away unknowing
that time has come to a halt, still waiting
for the spectacle to begin. The mourners
have waited years to reveal the crested
tributes, dressed in our finest uniforms
and standing waist deep in the mud watching
the idea of ideas slowly sink below the horizon
and the smell of decay and decline
rising and filling the space above
our heads with new and flashing images
of both the distant past and a glittering
future. The balance of effort tipping
away from our reach and slowly collapsing
into a final crash of what could have been.