Fast Day 345 January 17 2014 Ode On A Roman Tomb

 

Keat's Grave In The Protestant Cemetery In Rome

Ode On A Roman Tomb

Laying about in Rome, where the Via Appia begins,
waiting for the granitic tombstone promised by my friends,
let my name be writ in water,
let my nickname Tiber be,
after the father flow of ancient Rome
until it meets the sea where it abruptly ends.

My name upon the water which has ten billion eyes,
gleaming upon Earth or upon rogue planets discover
event horizon of Shelley,
who drowned in a black hole -
the cypress tombs and pyramid distend
like whale’s belly, where Jonah meet his lover.

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