Romanus sum – and I held my hand in fire;
Through twenty years it has burnt me to the bone.
I played the part of Mucius Scaevola
And suddenly it was here. All that the past
Has spewed ferments between its malformed walls.
Rome has not yet been built but in its place,
Bloated with lies, a new Byzantium swells.
And the crucifix is debased to a gilded bauble
And the flames of Pentecost lap a martyr’s stake.
It was such a waste to have burnt one’s living flesh
For a stillborn City’s sake.
c.1952