the high walls of this great room are filled with faces
brushwork portraits in chipped leaf frames
painted memorials
alarum-hung
on a faded backdrop
a bottle-green facade
to contrast with
those people from the past
they spook me out!
how can you say
they are beautiful
when all that they are
are ash and bones?

October 2004

Penny Hemans

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/aberdeen-art-gallery/