Gare du Nord

With the bright eyes
and calm elongated beauty
of a Bellini madonna
she carries her aura
wrapped clear around her
in a hot rushing tunnel
of the Paris Metro
face radiating absolution
to anyone who cares to see,
compels the steaming waves
grubby swirls and eddies
of this underground torrent
of 20th century humanity
to part biblically before her
allowing her to float past
untouched
then close again behind her
leaving a bare hint
of the scent of clean air.
Most lower their faces
unseeing
but a little later
one or two people
pause and look up
suddenly puzzled
in their rush across
the invisible trail she left
before she disappeared
back to her own time.