in truth’s righteousness and holiness
Ephesians 4:24
True Colors
The Great Hall relished these moments to itself
No more guides roting through Neoclassical exemplars
No more tourists freezing the perfect memories in frames
Nothing apparent but the Duke’s beloved blacks and whites
From the Dying Gaul hunched in Southern shadow
To Apollo pedestaled in Northern bright
An empty checkerboard stretching between them
Until the sun rays slanting through the clerestory
Set fireworks exploding
Green malachite
Blue azurite
Red cinnabar
Yellow and ocher from arsenic
Black of burned bone and vine
Reminders of the Greek aesthetic exposed
To those willing to witness the gaudy truth