A Visit to Ancient Rome

I just traveled to Rome last week for vacation. The trip inspired this poem.

Cradle of Plato, shining marble city of plenty

Lovers of aesthetics, science and symmetry

Sophistication, culture, beauty

Your deity blessed you-

You shining star of history

 

But your impoverished masses

Whisper your failings from the grave

Your shredded rejected are in pieces

On the coliseum floor

(The sparkling monument is still lit at night

            -I snapped a picture)

 

Who am I to say?

Home of Emerson and Whitman, rolling fields of plenty

Lovers of self, health, style, and chrome

Sophistication, technology, excess, success

Our deity bless us

A shining star of history

 

Abu Ghraib, slum raid, hush-repress

Where’s the press?

Freedom to worship

Freedom to speak

Freedom to hunger

Freedom to wonder

Same songs

Same wrongs

Still waiting to evolve

Reviews

[.]

I liked this. It was historically based, including the good and bads of a location. The realities you adress in the piece are real and can be seen by any who travel there. This makes your words not only beautiful in their vision and layout. It makes them important, for they share with the reader a reality that might otherwise be left on the side.

Great Ink!
Tara