PIETER BRUEGEL'S CONVERSION

In the Sixties
hearing talk
about Marx, Engels
at an urban table
while having a bagel
lox and cream cheese
then a despondent actor
arrives and leaves us
for a T.V. rehearsal
talks of "Three Sisters"
of Chekhov and "The Tempest"
by Shakespeare
with an art student
puts down a conduit of books
with her last test
discusses Pieter Bruegel's
the"Tower of Babel" and "Hell"
and his "Conversion of St.Paul"
from a Jew to Christianity,
yet not appalled as daily news
of the nation emerges on a radio
from a young future correspondent
listened to and challenged by
all these socially changed students
with their enlightened reviews
of a universal humanity
in a rudimentary manner
contrary to what was expected
so early by the morning clocks
that was able to form a quorum
in a half-eaten breakfast
as an an avant -garde poet
goes to class on Kierkegaard
which the professor
nicknames me through the year
in a quick cafeteria repast
their conversation stayed with me
though many arduous pages
in the college library
looking up a montage
of art, politics, economics
in an objective way.