Riding into Rome by Train, 1986

"Roma é rossa"

grafitti on concrete,

edited in haste

spray-paint for weapon,

vespa for get-away:

"Roma é (g)rossa."

Rail travelers

get the message

baking in the sun,

but urchins only hear

Doppler effect.

Upon a power pole:

Whosoever touches, dies.

"Chi tocca muore."

Smells of burning flesh

as lighted-windows flit

toward Piazza

Savonarola.

Conductor looks beyond

his job arranged in rows

to see a patio,

vines above and bricks below,

where ─half in shade─

two pigeons flutter together.

One eggs the other on

to avian bliss.

Neck thrust forward

and back─

goose step,

pigeon trot─

the conductor glides back, away,

toward Florence.

─ Richard Hacken