Domatilla and Priscilla

 the hop-on hop-off bus takes us

to the galleria femminile

Agnese’s catacomb ancestors

honey-combed earth

each cavity resting place for a body

wrapped in cloth

after a year we bring gifts

come with oil lamps

break bread

see the tiny alcove there

we sing their spirits

to eternal heaven

see how she stands

arms reaching skyward

rejoicing in speech

this god is a bird

alighting on the head

floating away

The hop-on hop-off bus is a great way to get around Rome before you know your way around properly, or if walking is difficult for one reason or another (including tiredness, sore hips, sore feet). It can save you hours in looking for the places you want to see. So my two characters, Diana and Agnese, make the most of it.

The Priscilla catacomb is well worth a visit and it recently made the papers because there is a storm about the fact that the top picture here might represent a woman preaching. She is standing in the traditional position for that.

Some also believe that the second image shows seven women breaking bread. I have a large reproduction of this, so I could see it properly, and it could easily be seven women and there are apparently seven virgins who fit the bill. I name them in another poem and they are: Saturnia
Hilarina Dominanda Rogatina Serotina Paulina Donata.

It also struck me as interesting that god, in these catacombs, is depicted as a bird. Given the incredibly long history of the bird representing numerous goddesses, here is the christian traditionce again repositioning itself and rebadging old images. The gods with wings are relatively late.

Agnese, by the way, was a martyr and she is almost always shown in company with lambs. Diana is one of the many goddesses who gets around with a pack of wolves by her side. The two are more than good friends.

Sicilia: inquisition in Palermo

death rides a skeletal horse

triumphant

corpses trampled

a woman’s silent scream

arrow in her throat

in the museum of the inquisition

inmates draw

the moon dog devil

the faithful kneel

naked in penitence

whispers of sin

hell of sleep

endless pain

help us oh lord

someone here knows

the Nicean creed

writes on the wall

with anxious hope

tortura

brutalità

atrocità

I've been thinking a lot about the horrors that so many people have endured, including the terrible experiences that women have suffered because they are so frequently violated and tortured in ways that are specific to our sex. Rape is such a standard way of punishing women that it took until the 1990s for it to be recognised as a war crime. 

The painting that inspired this poem also horrified me. It is such a terrifying image of how one might die and how a multitude of people did die. After seeing this painting in the National Museum in Palermo, I then visited the Museum of the Inquisition. Europe has a horrendous history and yet the inquisition images gave me some hope. That even in the midst of this horror and what must have been inhumane prison conditions there was this outpouring of art and poetry. There were a lot of angels on these walls too but unfortunately those photos are very faint.

hop-on hop-off

I have spent many hours trying to think about the structure of the book I am writing. Getting the structure right, finding a shape, a form, a narrative thread is one of the exciting parts of writing a book.

Structures can also change, so this could be temporary or have a permanent role. It’s too soon to know. Among the characters who have appeared in the text are two: Diana who runs with the hounds, her friends are wolves and wild animals; she is Artemis and possibly a wolf goddess. She has teamed up with Agnese, a Christian martyr, friend of sheep, perhaps even an ancient sheep goddess, maybe a descendant of Medea. These two have come to Rome for a massive party (I might tell you more about that later.) But they have arrived early and so they are travelling around Rome, in love with life and one another.

They live both in the ancient past but also in the contemporary world. On this day they are trying to do some sightseeing in Rome. They visit the temple of Venus in Torre de Argentina and then discover the buses are all stopped, so they head off on foot. They need to find an open-air hop-on hop-off bus.

Diana wants to see all the wolves of Rome, Agnese is endlessly enthusiastic about the sheep.

hop on hop off

from the temple of Venus where we made ancient vows

our witnesses wolverine and ovine

we head across the city but all the buses are stopped

there’s a demonstration against the excesses of the pharmaceutical industry

they have patented yet another formula of an old potion

claiming originality against the herbalists’ memories

we pass Pantheon and parliament where a rock band sings its protest against

thousands of years of corruption from the excesses of Nero Caligula and Domitian

to Mussolini’s megalomania and Berlusconi’s bunga bunga dissipations

we press on to the architectural wedding cake with its winged women and wolves

but we are stopped yet again banners across streets buses emptied of passengers

at last we can catch the bus to Labia visiting at Agnese’s insistence Costanza

Photos on this page (top to bottom):

Wolf, Colosseum.

Flying women at dawn, Piazza Venezia

Wolf head, Piazza Venezia

Flying woman on wolf head, Piazza Venezia

Mosaic sheep at Costanza

Statue of Saint Agnese in the Pantheon

Saint Agnese's sheep, next to her in Pantheon