Ianiculum
1. Children
2 via Vittor Pisano
cremo gelato cup in hand
listening to the voices
of children and old Italian men
surely speaking of their days
and their tomorrows
children running wild in this night
of Rome in a neighborhood
that is theirs alone
touching each other
in the romance
of the Roman night
clear and bright
in the endless victory
of a cooling evening
directing to a
quietude that is
dreamless sleep.
2. The Dead
Under the ancient pines of
Chiesa di San Nicola a Capo di Bove
flows the blood of the dead
who urged to pass the battlements
across the via Appia Antica
to caress the bones of the dead
sack the city
or just failed to pay their toll
of them all that remains
is the sanctuary's shell
and the umbrella pines
that whisper mysteries
in the depths of night
throughout a seamless eternity.
3. Nocturne
It is a long dripping hike
up the Ianiculum
so civilization traded up
to winding asphalt roads
lines of parked cars
phalanxes of sputtering
roaring motorcycles
bottles of cold water soda beer
dispensed with expensive
efficiency from gas
generated gaudies planted
under Garibaldi's watchful
right eye running late
into the rising moon
over the flowing river
of Rome surrounding
the lower levels of Ianiculum
rising imperceptibly
in millennial flood
surpassing even the heights
of the towering pines.
4. Trumpets
The low voices
of Latin recitation
of words that
I will never comprehend
mingle with the constant
soothing cadence
investing the light breeze
rising up out of Trastevere
though the sycamore leaves
which crowd out the blue sky
high over the brown
unshorn grass under
Garibaldi's horse's ass.
San Clemente a Monte Sacro
Roma, Italia
June 10, 2017
Roma Series
@2017 Ianiculum — Joseph Yarbrough
Reproduction prohibited without written permission