Go Gracefully instead
Herculaneum
by Lucie Brock-Broido
No one is bored, just barbaric
Anymore. Ash admixed with rain, which cooled
The air. How much longer will this beauty
Of yours last?
As if even the idea of the city
Has been lost for twenty centuries.
Don't quail like this; go
Gracefully instead.
Eros enters
The room like a lesser god stopped still
In the middle of a bath of oil & umbrage in
The exquisite hour.
No one is
Exquisite anymore. The river is so small now
It will be hard to drown
In it. And still this world's a pretty one.
What world.
by Lucie Brock-Broido
No one is bored, just barbaric
Anymore. Ash admixed with rain, which cooled
The air. How much longer will this beauty
Of yours last?
As if even the idea of the city
Has been lost for twenty centuries.
Don't quail like this; go
Gracefully instead.
Eros enters
The room like a lesser god stopped still
In the middle of a bath of oil & umbrage in
The exquisite hour.
No one is
Exquisite anymore. The river is so small now
It will be hard to drown
In it. And still this world's a pretty one.
What world.