Street

At the museum, with wall to wall art,
My choices were varied and vast.
I saw an exhibit with works of Matisse
And checked out some statues I passed.

But then I was drawn to a strumming guitar
And a crowd by a video screen,
Transfixed by a slow-motion film of New York,
The ultimate urbanites’ scene.

The footage was shot from inside of a car,
On the move while on various streets.
The people, oblivious, strutted and strolled
To their private internalized beats.

The movie, called “Street,” took some moments in time
And transformed the familiar to strange,
For by slowing things down to a snail-crawling pace,
What was humdrum did magically change.

From most Met* displays, this one surely did seem
Like a separate world, quite apart;
Yet it did what it should, for it helped us transcend
And to me, that’s the purpose of art.

*Metropolitan Museum of Art