History of the Mediterranean

Not as Braudel did it, the hegemonies
Of trade and the grand sweep. Nor yet
As those three-walled frescoes studded
With the sweat of innumerable angels.
I mean the gravity of feeling
Whose small wave without acclaim scatters
Redolent sand. Or a cheap hotel lobby:
Widow and widower talking beside a pillar
Of no particular importance
But that their marvelous lives lend.
Luxury bereft of years' weight, no
Chiseled imprimatur, marble freed
From the centurion's implacable shadow.

So, the day's gauntlet thrown, stand
On this Tuscan hill and watch as noon
Ripples the flax of distant homes.
In ahistorical sunlight we murmur,
Repeating the ever-to-be-repeated.
Pull your dress off and find the wind.