1.
Everything nearby.
Aeneas on the river
moving inland
past the white swine,
a sign. We have brought
so little with us
yet everything is here.
The story holds your hand.

2.
Breccia, yes? And a frozen pond.
Mild winter bur in the shallows
some. We lost our countries
and found this. Who invented
slavery? The Greeks had it,
takes so long to lose it. Even now.

3.
Imagine a monk
in dark red robe.
He lets the color
rise up inside him
till he feels a quiet
fervent love
for everyone.
Color is a prayer.

4.
Not the site of Rome
but upstream a little
He came and saw
and left the place alone.
A woman lived there,
ancestor of the man next door.
You hear his car start up
most mornings. You wonder
how much of who he is he knows.

5.
Millennia, that’s what it means,
three thousand years in Italy.
You see him in his backyard,
wears moccasins just like you.
I know so much I can’t say a word.