Per i Turisti
Inspired by a Postcard of Civita di
Bagnoregio, Italy
There’s only one way into Bagnoregio
so consider carefully
your entrance.
The mountains surrounding us are shaved
sharp like terrestrial knives
to cut the rain and parse the snow;
they divide our world into clouds
valleys and stone
what remains is all of you.
There you stand before our single entrance –
we just a mountaintop paese somewhere in
you unable to tell where
your humanity begins and the earth ceases.
So, the road stretches before you now,
slanted in places, angular, rickety,
propped up by toothpicks, history - the gate -
it’s open too. Please, come if you must.
We are not lonely.