Departing Rome

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

 

Let’s say you took a trip to Rome

and never got to see the sites.

All the places from childhood texts:

The Coliseum,

Arche di Constantino,

Fontana di Trevi,

Vatican,

remained to you as they were,

photos and stories.

But on your way to and from business meetings,

you passed a wall.

And embedded in that wall was a piece of white marble,

nestled there amidst ancient mortar and dreams.

It caught your eye,

again, once more, and again.

And each time you had the opportunity

you stopped,

greeted it,

and memorized something about its features:

The way the light reflects from its crystalline structure

under cover of sun or cloud or moon or lamp,

the chiseled edges and weather worn surface,

the hardness.

Irregularities of cut.

Perfection of being.

Until, it became etched upon your mind’s eye

and you knew,

knew with all the certainty of the Fates,

it would never leave this place.

Would that be enough for you?

To know one rock fragment

in one of the many walls of glorious Rome

in passing moments of eternal intimacy?

Yes.

Indeed.

For, this is what Life offers us in its most generous

of honest truths…

a construction of passing moments

with no guarantee of more

in which we can choose

to be fully present with another,

or not.

To see them so clearly that some aspect of their

essence permanently strengthens our Vision,

gives rise to fantastic works of art

within us,

or not.

So,

know, Dear One, that…

departing Rome,

I shall remember you,

this way.

© 2008-2013/Jamie K. Reaser 

Published in "Note to Self: Poems for Changing the World from the Inside Out" (www.hiraethpress.com)