Published January 1, 2023
by George Moore
(Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia, Canada)
pass on the Piazza
they come and go
over the sampietrini stones
built as Roman roads
with reverence to matter
pass in a line as ducks might pass
ignoring the crowd chatter
at Michelangelo's dome
and fly by Peter's tomb
its rosy porphyry
in mad design
the sanity of eternity
where Charlemagne was crowned
and the dusty wings of doves
anoint the heads of saints and martyrs
high on the half-circle colonnades
and skirt the tourists
who complain of the heat
and where to eat
and scurry off
on their one
free afternoon
Biography
George Moore has published in Arc, Grain, Poetry, Colorado Review, Orion, and Stand.
His collections include Children's Drawings of the Universe (Salmon Poetry 2015) and Saint Agnes Outside the Walls (FutureCycle 2016).
He lives on the south shore of Nova Scotia.
Website: https://spot.colorado.edu/~mooreg/Site/About.html.
This poem is included in Poetry World #5, published in the Wax Poetry and Art Library.
Previously published in Canada Poetry Magazine:
Superior Winter
by Andrew Douglas
Canada Poetry Magazine is part of the Wax Poetry and Art Network.
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