Romanticized Rome

Jan 7

And as she swayed
Between the sheets of time
Dreaming of a scenic life
in dampened streets of rhyme

Effortless thoughts unfurled
From the curve of chime above
Shuddering in contemplation
Of her romanticized love

In his birthplace, arm in arm
She strolls the streets of Rome
Imbibing shame for feeling
Capriciously at home

The city always greets her
Like that very first time
Its opulent beauty
Anxious to unwind

But splendor never blinds her
To amusement prone by sin
Men who stared at death
To spawn each other’s grins

While Piazza Navona
Sings of Christianity’s reach
The crumbling Colosseum
Tales of horror begs to teach

But history repeats itself
The present will rewind
With modern man held captive
To a screen of the “sublime.”

We too romanticize, it seems
The absurd, even grotesque
Concealed within the precious barbs
Of what we call finesse

The world will keep on spinning
As we search and others live
And fewer still, displaced in angst
Are destined to forgive

Alina de Albergaria

Expanse