amidst Roma’s babble
traffic, crowd, tourist and citizen
meticulous chaos level 10
ambush of aromas: pleasant – fetor
banquets on each junction
sandal-worn cobblestone
turn and turn and turn
alley or path or throughway, still
finding multitudes of plain façades
seemingly unembellished, unremarkable
but to trod hallow earth
lavish feasts greet the eye
classical, Byzantine, gothic
each gilded to devotion’s appetite
bathed in bloody tears
