All Those Years Ago

 

How strange 

that the paintings 

of a young Adolf Hitler 

were of churches:

-The Minorite Church of Vienna

-St. Charles Church 

-St. Stephen’s Cathedral

-A southern Bavarian church

The only one I’ve seen

in person is St. Stephen, but

I may very well have passed 

the others without knowing it.

A friend and I wandered 

the streets of Vienna for a day 

where I looked for literary landmarks 

while he looked for pastries.

It’s disconcerting to think that

this young artist with such 

talent in good measure 

could become so inhuman.

In my experience art has had 

a profoundly humanizing effect

that I could not have done 

without in these middle years.

“My Struggle” apparently has had

a very different meaning for me 

than it did for that angry man

all those years ago.

***