Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

II

He took pleasure  in levelling the mountains
                             and in raising high the plains

He dreamt             that he induced a massacre
                                                     a famine
                                                     a cataclysm

Quite facetiously  one day
                            in jest he brought a small triumphal arch
                                 up to the top of the tower
                                 a model of the siege of Numantia
                                 by Scipio Aemilianus

He put    his right hand in a blazing fire
              (the hope for happiness!)

                            The face's impassivity in spite of effort
                                   is characteristic
                             the calm
                                   the energy and the reflection
                                            always showed through
                    (note the precision
                               of trees
                               of rocks
                               of hills
                               the bird struck by an arrow)

During the night of 15-16 July, 1823               a bomb crashed
                                                                       The villa was pillaged

                   On that day Apollo was on the verge of killing a lizard

                      Various objects :
                                                a mirror
                                                a jug
                       small marble cubes of exactly the same size
                       floats for fishing nets
                                                rigging
                       balista (a type of crossbow)
                       a nail from the Passion
                       two thorns from the Crown

The Aventine was entirely devastated:
                                              a convent
                                              replaced the temple of Jupiter

Being
an augur
                  he interpreted the Heavenly signs :

                                           the flight of birds
                                           the appetite of chickens
                                           the small unusual facts

and had an artificial hillock built from fragments of amphorae

After his brain's first ecstatic stroke
                                                                     he understood
                                                                     things
                                                                     only very slowly
                "Seeing his funeral, he knew that he was dead"
                            What an artist perishes in me!

He dies     throat slashed by the Triumvirate's professionals
                Fearing a trap
                no-one dared rejoice
                Which means that there is little in between
                                        a triumph
                                        and a fall

About the same era           the Ripetta harbour disappeared
                                                             Scipio embarked for Spain
                   the residential area extended towards the sea
                   He ended his life hidden underneath the staircase
                            Hic jacet pulvis cinis et nihil
                            Here lies dust, ashes, nothing
                            A miniature chariot
                            rose and white laurels
                            toilet or cult objects

                               Consternation was general