THE KISS

In the Belvedere Palace

I watch a Japanese tourist group

Shuffle behind their leader, who points

Up, high on the wall: Der Kuss by Gustav Klimt.

Mouths fall open in unison, with a gasping Ahhhh

At the sight, this painting an icon now for a hundred years,

A Thing To See for each visitor to Wien;

And now ticked off their mental list-of-sights;

This shoal of mouths-still-open passes

Into another room, to next tick off another Klimt

Or perhaps a Kokoshka ? And to ask their guide:

Benjo onegai – please where is the toilet ?