roma
here, no one thinks a thought just for a head
instance--palatine, olympico
stadia
the way of the speller to whom it's obvious that I am jesus christ
sometimes I feel obligated to tell them this
that they are still romans
think togas
green garlands
mostly men
as taxi drivers
cafe americano
desk jockeys
ticket takers
always three or four of them
one of them more quiet than the others, in charge
still romans
italy is just a word
I want to say to them--
in america I am often superman but for some reason I am jesus christ here
they would laugh that distant perfect laugh they have
they would be better looking than superman himself
their clothes jealous of the people who wear them
morning
traffic in the street turning water on and off in the the shower
slide curtain
romans everywhere
but I, I am jesus christ
or sometimes, for fifteen minutes at a time in america, I am superman
instance--palatine, olympico
stadia
the way of the speller to whom it's obvious that I am jesus christ
sometimes I feel obligated to tell them this
that they are still romans
think togas
green garlands
mostly men
as taxi drivers
cafe americano
desk jockeys
ticket takers
always three or four of them
one of them more quiet than the others, in charge
still romans
italy is just a word
I want to say to them--
in america I am often superman but for some reason I am jesus christ here
they would laugh that distant perfect laugh they have
they would be better looking than superman himself
their clothes jealous of the people who wear them
morning
traffic in the street turning water on and off in the the shower
slide curtain
romans everywhere
but I, I am jesus christ
or sometimes, for fifteen minutes at a time in america, I am superman
posted by gradylove at 11:47 AM
2 Comments:
are you Jesus Christ because of JC?
your stories are more real tome than your poetry...but why does it have to be that way?
you open up a pretty interesting topic/issue with this poem: "historical identity." The modern Greks walk th same shores as homer and Sapho, Heracles and Agamemnon, but are they that glorious hisory? The greeks would want to lay claim to that heritage but the historio-cultural distance of that ancient past is somewhat unbridgeable. lets start at the level of the logos, modern greek is not ancient greek or demotic. If the New Testament begins with the logos, then the unbridgeable begins at the level of the logos and the dissociations radiate out from that point. I'm sure the same is true of the Italians. Their streets are dominated by ruins and massive achievments that define their ancient civilization as one of the greatest the world had ever seen, in terms of achievments, medicin, poetry and a host of other borrowed and reinvented cultural institutions. Yet, what if we were to examine the record of modern Italy, its fascism during the 30s and 40s, the crime of la cosa nostra, the dissociative power of the logos as it relates to modern Italian and classical Latin, the power that was the Roman Empire and the tourist attraction that is Rome today. The history of the Papalcy and terror it spread throughout the middle ages etc. etc.
Just my two cents...
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