GERTRUDE STEIN'S QUEST


you looked to words
   for relief
in those pre war years
to politicians
controlling the masses
 to make a magician's peace
at least you had a rose
is a rose
  and Alice
away in your palace
of fearful imagination
  away from your pre-
occupation, logicians,
and disbelief
imposing what passes
   as a pose
on a wonderland world
through rose colored
 looking glasses.