more than tourism
Title: Rome
Young bones heaped upon old bones,
I will crawl and then climb
from the vaults of the Cloaca Maxima
to the apex of Trajan's Column.
Its expanse is laid out before me,
seven hills all within view.
The aqueducts, the Forum, the Pantheon,
and the Flavian Amphitheater, proudest of all.
But they are all just bones now,
draped in the ghostly flesh
of Citizens, wayfarers and slaves.
A Senator's toga gives its thread to the wind.
As Ithaka was to Cavafy,
so the City is to me.
Both destiny, and destination
of a long journey, unhurried.
If I never reach her,
if death comes before I arrive in the City,
my heart will flee my body
and speed there on eagle's wings.
And at the very last I will look down
from where I soar, to the Oculus,
and see through the Pantheon's eye
all under Heaven.
The City, my City.
Home.
Some notes: 1) The Flavian Amphitheater is better known as the Colosseum. 2) The name Ithaka links to my favorite poem by Constantine Cavafy, a turn of the (last) century Greek poet who lived most of his life in Alexandria, Egypt. 3) Though it might be mixing metaphors, I found it necessary to use the phrase 'all under Heaven' even though the source of the phrase is Chinese (tiān xià).
Young bones heaped upon old bones,
I will crawl and then climb
from the vaults of the Cloaca Maxima
to the apex of Trajan's Column.
Its expanse is laid out before me,
seven hills all within view.
The aqueducts, the Forum, the Pantheon,
and the Flavian Amphitheater, proudest of all.
But they are all just bones now,
draped in the ghostly flesh
of Citizens, wayfarers and slaves.
A Senator's toga gives its thread to the wind.
As Ithaka was to Cavafy,
so the City is to me.
Both destiny, and destination
of a long journey, unhurried.
If I never reach her,
if death comes before I arrive in the City,
my heart will flee my body
and speed there on eagle's wings.
And at the very last I will look down
from where I soar, to the Oculus,
and see through the Pantheon's eye
all under Heaven.
The City, my City.
Home.
Some notes: 1) The Flavian Amphitheater is better known as the Colosseum. 2) The name Ithaka links to my favorite poem by Constantine Cavafy, a turn of the (last) century Greek poet who lived most of his life in Alexandria, Egypt. 3) Though it might be mixing metaphors, I found it necessary to use the phrase 'all under Heaven' even though the source of the phrase is Chinese (tiān xià).