Driving through Liguria

In Dolceacqua we looked out over the castle ramparts
For the ghost of a girl murdered by a baron
When she refused him his droit de seigneur,
And on St Sebastian’s Day the procession came,
And the man carried a tree laden with communion hosts,
Spirit of the forest, hidden in the harvest,
Infusing his life into the vegetation.
Spiralling heavenwards on hairpin bends,
We sought the Saracen sun’s initiation;
In Triora we wandered empty streets,
Past ancient houses locked and deserted,
Reading the stone vaults’ woodsmoke stains,
And the carved door lintels, lit with the figures of saints,
And curious initials of the forgotten dead,
Who might never have existed.
In the glistening forest of chestnuts and pines,
I held you close against a tree, embracing,
And the earth charged like a wild boar
To gore the vertiginous sky as it fell,
Lifted on the wings of golden eagles.
In Taggia on the feast of Mary Magdalene,
Two men performed the Dance of Death,
And revived the dead saint with the perfume
Of lavender blossom, and all across the summer fields
And olive groves birds sang with fierce delight.
In Portovenere ,ascending the narrow stairways,
You shone like a rare silver Roman coin in the sun,
Recovered from some shark-loved wreck,
And we found ourselves among maps and boats,
Doomed pirates dreaming of another voyage,
While life swam away with a dolphin’s smile,
Suddenly my soul was returned to me
A lost ring found in the belly of a fish.
“I hate my ankles!” you groaned, “so thick and ugly!
What a joke- they just don’t belong!”
The sea glittered in the evening sun,
And I could almost smell the junipers and orchids
Of the wild maquis, carried on the warm breeze.
I imagined the White Madonna drifting ashore,
And envied the fishermen, calmly mending their nets,
Certain of the kind protection of Venus,
And just below St Peter’s sanctuary, remote,
I ventured down the slippery steps to the shore,
And teetered, clumsy coward, on the rocks
From where bold Lord Byron, heroic or crazy,
Plunged in and swam across the waves to Leri