Gallery

by Philip Davison

Twenty-five small children

Box up in the giant service elevator

of the National Gallery

Each with a presentation box of crayons

(paper supplied when properly settled)

They are here to see people and places

in shapes and colours

They will listen to, but not boxy

the laws of life and art

They will see what they see

The nothing-ever-taken-backness of it

It's a kind of faith they have

And faith is shown -

it is on the walls, up and down the years

and in the pulleys and gears of an elevator

which is babble and squeak happy

as it boxy rises, and soon

the twenty-five will draw