Sean Wayman: The Museum of Socialist Art, Sofia

The Museum of Socialist Art, Sofia

If it were not for the sculpture garden,

who would ever come out to this dismal place,

where long-poured concrete has been left to harden

as parking lots and unleased office space?

Yet come we do, hoping to unearth

a brilliant gleam amidst the ashen waste,

to prise out that object of uncommon worth—

the relic that will brighten understanding.

Yet should this dream-goal prove too demanding,

experience, close and coarse-grained, may suffice;

we buy our tickets and head towards the yard.

Set by the gate, as if to advertise

some new brand or fad, is a huge, red-starred

finial, the former stickpin of Party House.

It stands now in a state of disregard,

atoning for the passions it had once aroused.

Beyond wait the statues, each on its plinth,

surrounded by spring grass, as green as absinthe.

We follow a path down the gentle slope

towards the collection of statues and busts—

an assembly of astonishing scope.

The restless…