Another Brushstroke

There is a delicious ambiguity
found in the repeated brushstrokes
Cezanne uses to build Mont Sainte-Victoire
on canvas after canvas.  Blocks of color
laid down right next to each other
like crowds of people from all cultures
waiting to be released to stand
for millennia in their traditional costumes
one right next to the other.  Having
traveled so far, I wonder, will the desire
to pray for the gathered thousands
make for a moving prayer of humility?
Will each listener be welcomed by the earth?
Or will the powers-that-be, those who
step in time together through the gardens
of delight, plow everything underground?
Wait, for the painter is pondering
another brushstroke.