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