Tuesday Poem: “Cathedral of the Poor” by Frankie McMillan

Cathedral of the Poor

Gaudi watches his father tend bees,

draws the shape of hives,

the pillars of Sagrada Familia

smoke pours

from a wooden box, his father rises

around his neck are baubles

seeds from the magnolia tree

Is there any better structure

than the trunk

of a human skeleton ?

But look

here is the four armed cross

the breath of the glassblower,

the ceramicist, ironmonger

Here is work, long as the prayers

of a Bavarian priest

Here are the trees that grow in the nave

the helicoid columns

the bees in his...