Theology Today - Vol 49, No.2 - July 1992 - POETRY

Landscape with Tempietto
By Thomas M. Disch

Here before the temple in Tompkins Square Park
The bench that has remained most intact
Is that which faces the pediment marked
TEMPERANCE. Most of the benches facing FAITH
And HOPE are missing half their slats;
And worse, the rim of the fountain within
Is smashed on those two sides, a telling allegory
Of VANDALISM. The four granite columns
Are scrawled with only the hastiest grafitti -
Except for one, a silhouette of leaves
In slumlord green that almost registers
As an actual shadow cast by the branch
That curves to form a canopy above
The temple's pyramidal roof. All that is left
To note is CHARITY, opposite which
The benches are in much better shape,
As though they, and not the temple, had been meant
To be protected by the iron fence that separates
The temple precinct and the public path.