Deborah Tyler-Bennett
The Roman waits
Lord of Healing, the man who raised this temple
waits for thunder hammering low hills,
for winds to pad like wolves, for elemental
floods pummelling doors and sills.
Yet, silence. Hours ago men buried a boy Briton
slain at this Roman’s word (surprising guards
in herb garden, the Briton brandished swords)
now buried close to healing springs, earth bitten
by haste. Diggers lifted
limp plucked-bird
limbs, as blue-faience beads shifted
on glue white shoulders. The Roman heard
his own voice say a child,
blue-beads recalled rare lapis-lazuli
cupping his wife’s neck on her burial day,
recalled Marcus Agrippa painting her mild
features on the coffin lid,
torch-light scorching dark
oil painted eyes - how he’d hid
his face. No barque
for the infant trespasser. Lord
of Healing, he who raised this temple waits,
uncertain why, for thunder. Gored
bones tell a boy’s fate
should anybody dig where lie
heaped limbs, tied
hands, young stomach full of seeds
blanched bones
blue-beads.
Page(s) 44
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