The scaffold's up
For the cathedral -
This time restoration,
Of the building anyway.
Block by block
Fresh stonework quarried from
The bones of France
Has more than half replaced
These stained and wearied pieces.
The new-cut stuff is sharp,
But lacking certain details.
Here, in these crumbling interstices -
Moldering saints almost erased
By centuries of hostile weather;
All the new stuff, blank.
So were fresh saints too costly,
Or passed over as
Unnecessary?