I
When Benjamin West went East
who was left to save America?
Before the Wyatts
could tame the rough and craggy land
Christina or Helga might live and die there
in dignity
but not Benjamin West.
The Garden of Eden?
Was it a garden of delight?
Did he leave or was he expelled?
There Barbarians did not breathe
the sacred air of justice and mercy.
Benjamin West went east
to breathe that sacred air.
They followed him.
The Copleys the Stuarts the Peales the Trumbulls.
Some loyalists
Some revolutionaries
Some stayed
Some returned
to teach us what?
That even Barbarians
like pretty things.
It took a hundred years
from when West went east
for the national reckoning.
At last, there was a chance again
perhaps one in a million
to return to the garden
and there bury all the furies
that made him have to go.
II
The Benjamin West went south.
One day it was up
the next day down.
I wrote the NGA
Where is the Benjamin West today?
“The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden”
Their response would cause my sinews to harden.
Here’s the deal…
replaced by a Peale
“That is unreal.”
I called the curator and tried to reach her
Sometimes a student should replace a teacher.
“The Peale is important too”
At least that was her point of view
but the work taken down
was America’s history.
After the Benjamin West went south
What is left to save me?
crawlin' from the wreckage 