*
Lovely surprising. 

The mermaid and the crab
Hold hands 
              Allow for sightly reprieve.

Creatures that scuttle 
Between the sea and the sands

             Creases in her hand becoming 
More defined, only occurring to describe 
The starfish's heat

His risk of travel more 
Enlarging. 
The Lido's staircase immense.


*
The beast 
And all his regenerations
His arms and arms and 
Arms and arms arms. 

Crab mostly jealous as in 'in love.' 


*
Water moving off 
             The other fish 
             In ghostly spirit turns
 
             Swimming 
Plant-like dull, shapeless, a haphazard weed.
 

*
Junking around 
As the morning does allow it

One has good reason to be concerned 
One cannot say what one means.

Children left home without bother

What a bother, what a dreadful way!

In which case, it will be missed dearly 

Fair introspection, my dear mother. 


*
We cannot all be Darwin.

Deliberations in the sauna
In which the sweat
Resembles something other than water.  


*
A little tooth in France 
Surely knows the way.


*
To Italia!
To Italia!
My fair maiden
Almost there with Never 

Thin as cigarette paper
The poison hides the plenty

Witches and spies 
On the waterfront watching.


*
Hints of silver
             Mercury glass 
             Silver-leaving 

The time it took 
      At the Valley of the Temples

Without the upended Baroque church
             At purgatorial divide.


*
The Normans built the castle in 1025.

And if they didn't 
             1025 all the same 
Just the same
    Every year, the contestants swim
Round the coral tree
Round the Lava Foot

In a race 


*
For Evelyn, the darling of the sea.



*
He taught me how to swim to the faraway rock
Pry the mussels off and suck the juices

A bit of diving was learned
The knife hidden in your palm

Eating whole lemons with salt 
The knife came back to carve around
The world's curve

The Cyclops waiting in Aci Trezza's cavcs. 


*
Wooden staircase
   Rickety down
The algae cuts both waters

Shallow deep 
Single end rocks 

The bending of the rope 
Again,  the cactus as dinosaur foliage

Pre-dawn, pre-life

Up in the lemon orchards there is no noise


*
Only African wind
Which is part 

Of the illustruous burning
The quiet cackling of a witch's spirit

Her dark lips
The sea blazes with fire 

A soccer game is played under the harvest moon 
Giant, orange, and proud

The Crab moves Evelyn a 
Million years before our meeting


*
Two red candles lit 
Almost as if from within 
             There's the light, the heat taking 
Space in the cool dark caves 
	
Heads
Helmets fashioned out of brine and wear


* 
The shell sounds, the starfish 
             Trumpeting 
What fancy wine
Brass-holds

The drunkenness of night
             Knees shaking
The aion pours forth 
             Thru pores
Opening doors
             "I can hear you,"
              Sesame


*
The Arabian influences

Morning ice 
             Rice 
Raisins in savory
	
The right hand performing 
Acts in the aviary

Sophisticated learning
Tremendous reception


*
The Greek influences


*
The Persian influences
	

*
The Normans


*
Are we all not true Romans


In the House's main atrium?


*
The walls were thick
Settling for one land or another
             And in the garden
  Wild strawberries
Small, smaller than half the tip
Of your smallest finger

This being my grandmother's version

    The ribbons she knotted
Or the pouches of fabric
She sewed
        Spoken for by the nuns
        A girl of eleven

Fast hands
Obedient 
    Downward nose

The castle 
A true point in her vision. 


*
Roman hands
Roman lands
             My nose
All the Knowing 
That goes with it

Atrium's pool clear and square. 


*
Stones piled on top

Fermentation 
Anchovies packed in haste
             In salt
Marble tiles packing down
    The fishes' innards becoming skin-shaped. 


*
FANGO grief
Warm sculpture bubbles

Thick ancient mud

Unruly
Durable heat

People on horseback came

Their small square houses

Shades drawn
Zero point calm




*  
The goldsmiths
       Silversmiths

Minting Mount Vesuvius
Cameo-headed hot lava jewelry

Objects Alfa-Romeo made

Vertica saved
             Argentum 


*
"La volere di dire"

Speak me explained

Center acting as if there is no use

Reverberations of the echo-circle
The great dungeon incredibly not full.