THE GALLERIES, SYRACUSE, NY (August 2026 revision)

My sight sunk through a glass wall
       staring through from a library & its lending
       down empty greenhouse-cathedral lighted space
       to the mall floor of unsatisfying
       shopping.

Then I wrote this declaration
          that a something ought to be,
          though not allowing for such a something
          with my sensibility,
          for I see

this town hasn't the mercy
       to build walls at kind angles.
       For the spaces open and closed
       there should also be
       the threshold.

Here's a fortress made of glass;
           a glass threshold has wandered here,
           the time over for our blood
           congeals and cracks in
           a hanging box.

It leans about and views
    the glittering pit so absolute
    voyeurism trapped above those
    browsing, far too strained of
    being watched.

The only changes between this revision and the one before is the addition of one word and the omission of one stanza, the one about table arrangements. It’s sad to see it go, but it interrupted flow of word and meaning, and I could find no place else to put it.

Aug. 29, 2026 edit: Removed a comma and added a comma.