Taken from a dream

It was still light when we landed -

The wings of the jet were pale wands -

The first stars glimmered above the terminal -

In the long snaky queues to the passport control I heard a boy say va bene -

We waited for the courtly ufficiale -

Sophie smiled her beautiful forgiving smile -

In the taxi, I sat behind the driver -

I closed my eyes, remembering clouds - 

It grew dark when we were on the autostrada -

We drove towards the city - 

Over the carriageway there were illuminated signs -

Ostia, Fuimicino, Roma -

Each wonderful name taken from a dream -

Approaching Rome

April 2025

Wallace would always take my Queen

Wallace and I played chess in the white jet -

Whilst Wallace took my Queen we were flying over mountains -

Later we played in the house with arched windows - 

His dangerous Knight leapt over my stolid pawns - 

Each morning we played this noble game -

I would sip the espresso Wallace made for me - 

Sophie would butter a ciriola -

We would set out the pieces -

Wallace would always take my Queen - 

Travestere 

Rome 

April 2025

Every night we ate pasta

Every night we ate pasta in a louche osteria - 

Sophie and I would drink aperol spritzers -

The louche darkness would fill the mazy alleys -

Beautiful ragged girls would wear skirts made of cobwebs -

Their lean tattooed boys would lounge on church steps -

Wallace would talk football with the ragazzo of a waiter -

Inside the osteria I'd see the doomed lobsters in their tank -

Jazzmen would play in the piazza -

Sophie and Wallace would play cards -

A pale moon would glimmer in the Trastevere sky -

Trastevere 

Rome

April 2025

Even then I'd walked with angels

We walked between the pillars of Bernini's colonnade -

Great lamps, unlit, hung down above our heads -

The service was over -

Hundreds of chairs were still set out before the basilica -

A few nuns lingered in the piazza -

Clouds filled the sky -

Water gushed into a splendid fountain -

We saw a sculpture in sad bronze -

Migrants, refugees, those who ached with memory -

We saw their faces -

We felt the weight of their hearts -

The sculpture was called Angels Unawares -

I wondered how many angels had brushed against us since we woke -

How many were amongst those sad pilgrims -

Those who had lost all their darlings -

I remembered being in Paris with Sophie -

The words above a doorway in Shakespeare and Company -

The angels in Wings of Desire -

Their sorrow and love -

Cassiel leaning forward to hear some desperate thoughts -

The last time I'd been here, there'd been a cloudburst -

Boys had rushed our, shouting brellas, brellas -

Even then I'd walked with angels -

The air not filled with rain but love -

St Peter's

Rome 

April 

Walking from the Piazza Trilussa to the Via della Conciliazione

We walked along the Tiber, from the Piazza Trilussa to the Via della Conciliazione -

It was Palm Sunday, still early -

The mazy alleys of Trastevere had been empty -

Windows were still shuttered, osterias yet to open - 

Wallace had dribbled his Roma Lazio football down the Vicolo dei Panieri -

We'd had coffees and pancakes in the Bar Meccanismo -

Plane trees lined the banks of the river -

Noble bridges spanned the slow moving current -

An opulent Lancia swept past us -

There were villas, silent gardens behind railings -

Dark reefs of apartments -

A pasticceria just opening its doors -

Two winged victories guarded the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II -

Pilgrims were gathering near the Castel Sant'Angelo -

In the Via della Conciliazione, we were given cuttings from an olive tree -

I remembered being thirteen -

Learning my catechism -

The confirmation lessons in the church hall - 

 Who made me - God made me -

The joyous poignant mystery of this day - 

Rome

April 2025

In the Colosseum

We entered the Colosseum through the Gladiators Gate -

Our guide was called Daniel -

We kept close to him, threading our way through the murmuring crowd - 

Mighty columns supported a cruel circle of stone - 

We saw the labyrinth which had been hidden beneath the sand - 

Dark dens had voided wild beasts -

Sharp iron had pierced flesh and severed bone -

Those men, women, children killed here were beyond all counting - 

Despite the crowd, the laughter and the smartphones, I could feel their anguish - 

Even now, with so many names forgotten, they were still here, invisible, mute, amongst us - 

We followed Daniel to the high galleries -

I heard the echoes of hungry voices -

Above us the sky was a pale ancient blue -

 

The Colosseum, Rome

April 2025

At the Farnese Gardens

In the Farnese gardens there was birdsong - 

Sunlight fell on mannered greenery - 

There were cypress trees, paths trod by exquisite ghosts -

Water fell into a fountain - 

I looked out from a terrace across the city - 

I saw its churches, palaces, towers - 

Its broken columns, arches white as bone - 

The long memory of its ancient heart - 

Farnese Gardens, Rome

April 2025