Sign of the Cross

Years ago, 

before the East Germans began

 rebuilding their churches, 

they erected a secular structure: 

the television tower at Alexander Platz. 

Virtually ever since, 

the authorities have been working

 to correct what they view 

as the tower’s one major flaw: 

treating the glass sphere at the top

 with paints and chemicals of every kind. 

Yet even today 

when the sun strikes that sphere, 

that sphere that towers over all Berlin, 

the light makes the Sign of the Cross. 

There in Berlin, 

like the city itself, 

symbols of love, 

symbols of worship, 

cannot be suppressed.