Sarcophagi

Here the cold of history clings.

It fires the brain and chills the bone

To see the bishops and the kings

Supine beneath the sculptured stone.

Saint George and Michael, sword in hand,

Watch nymphs and satyrs play at love.

Hera and Aphrodite stand

Beside the peacock and the dove.

Wild Salome and Judith frown.

A sage Ulysses keeps his head.

Saint Francis, unsurprised, looks down

On Leda's feathered marriage bed.

Resounding Triton smiles to see

The dolphins dancing in his wake.

Around the flowering apple tree

The lion stalks the simpering snake.

Guiseppe, sniffling, feels his fame

May come to something less than this.

He lifts his pen and scrawls his name.

His mongrel lifts a leg to piss.