In the cathedral we pay to see
the tidy undertow of bones

                                                        on velvet. Saintly knuckles,
                                                        & the eyetooth set

like a comet in the pearl
& cedar cross.

                                                        On the way out, you catch
                                                        the no flash placard,

hung above the glass,
& though it's too late

                                                        for either of us, now,
                                                        I know even light
                                                        can be wrong.

No one comes here
this time of year.

                                                        High desert the biggest
                                                        room I have ever seen,

& the mesas' dark tonsures
of pine—such lousy

                                                        preamble for an evening
                                                        just getting to its feet,

& us tripping into another
museum so nearly closed.

                                                        When it's called for, we linger:
                                                        the fiberglass 1:1 Fat Man,

wedding veils stitched
in parachute silk

                                                        & the odd corner table—
                                                        its pond of tempered

glass set like sky over cancerous
coin, belt buckle, golden filling,

                                                        irradiated slivers arranged
                                                        like human-henge.

You put your hand above it all.
But won't lean. Don't say

                                                        to take the picture. I have
                                                        never been more

certain the flash was on.
That light

                                                        will pulverize whatever
                                                        it catches.