Veni Vidi

The world
is about to be created.

Today the streets are empty. The shops
are getting a fresh coat of paint
behind metal shutters.

Even the weather isn't ready:
unseasonable frost,
though the greens of spring are just beginning
to probe the hardpan of winter.

In the piazza there's a single palm tree,
gawky as Big Bird,
its fronds wrapped in a canvas bustle,
one green tuft poking up like a tail.
It's being groomed for the season.
They'll let it out soon
when more of our kind arrive.

We're leaving on the ferry
after the new ones disembark.

We still have time
to dash off a swaggering
Veni vidi on glossy postcards:
We came, we saw
the Tourist Bureau sign
THIS WAY TO THE SUNSET,
the lake with its fresh coat of light.

Copyright © 2009 Chana Bloch All rights reserved
from Blood Honey
Autumn House Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission