those sensible buildings
to which
daily access
is granted millions.
Then, there are
the particular places—
a ramshackle cabin
high in the mountains, say—
whose paths are passable only
intermittently.
And last of all, there's
that one empty palace—
with its gilt towers
and buttresses frozen
at formidable right angles
and its piercing
white interiors, all
excruciatingly polished—
which, having glimpsed
only once,
you have ever since permitted
to secretly exist,
but which
you'd never dare wish
for one second
to reinhabit.
