the desert is heavy with rain today
hyenas fierce and feverish sandstone

erode the valleys all below
and dozens of messiahs bellow why

onward pallid clouds billow
toward Rome, a buzzing thing.

red harpooned and marching
legionnaires kick dandelion heads, poof! poof!

here,
my children are mirthful

splashes in shallow courtyard pools,
and they race around the colonnades.

 

 

keith anthony francese

6.4.2016