Poetry by David Sapp
The tour book
My vade mecum
In prudence or prejudice
Warned of nimble
Pickpocketing gypsies
Roman Romani
For the entire trip
In heightened vigilance
I was prepared to dispatch
As so instructed
“Hit the road!”
In perfect Italian
After the Caravaggios
At Santa Maria del Popolo
Paul’s conversion
Peter’s crucifixion
Their world their view
Turned upside-down
In aesthetic inebriation
We sat put our backs
Against the chiesa wall
An Egyptian obelisk
An arched Roman gate
History looming
Heavily in the piazza
Gelato on our minds
And there approaching
Finally! the unkempt woman
Her intent quite clear
And my opportunity:
“Vada via!”
Immediately I apprehended
My impertinence
As her expression was more
Disappointment than anger
As if: “you seemed like
A nice young man your
Rudeness unnecessary”
Rome was her city
Rome was her suffering
Her Via Dolorosa
David Sapp, writer, artist, and professor, lives along the southern shore of Lake Erie in North America. A Pushcart nominee, he was awarded Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Grants for poetry and the visual arts. His poetry and prose appear widely in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
