Roma Flora
As we walk back and forth
through the villages that are Roma
it is lovely to touch the flowers
with my eyes
strewn in random corners
nestling in their radiance.
In daylight the wild lavender geraniums
people the grassy areas numbering
the living and the dead
glorious in their fecund abundance
never diminished because of it.
It is long walk back
up the hill each night
to the residence but lit
in the golden Roman night
the bougainvillea envelops the walls
in shades of pink to flowing red
moving us upward on an eternal river
the journey comes to slight labor.
The laughter and the distant
voices come off the Aurelian wall
in obtuse angles
once meant to keep danger out
now providing a border for our
home return in the gentle Roman night.
Ave Maria, Florida
June 14, 2016
Roma Series
@2016 Roma Flora — Joseph Yarbrough
Reproduction prohibited without written permission
through the villages that are Roma
it is lovely to touch the flowers
with my eyes
strewn in random corners
nestling in their radiance.
In daylight the wild lavender geraniums
people the grassy areas numbering
the living and the dead
glorious in their fecund abundance
never diminished because of it.
It is long walk back
up the hill each night
to the residence but lit
in the golden Roman night
the bougainvillea envelops the walls
in shades of pink to flowing red
moving us upward on an eternal river
the journey comes to slight labor.
The laughter and the distant
voices come off the Aurelian wall
in obtuse angles
once meant to keep danger out
now providing a border for our
home return in the gentle Roman night.
Ave Maria, Florida
June 14, 2016
Roma Series
@2016 Roma Flora — Joseph Yarbrough
Reproduction prohibited without written permission