August in Rome
Each piazza is a pizza –
Oven where bareheaded tourists
Braise their brains to Ragu
Self-reflection is the only shade –
To pause then rehydrate
Our civic duty
While crossing Popolo
I came upon a novice nun
Her i-phone case of plastic pearl-effect
Accessorised her rosary –
Does one so close to God
Now entreat her Saviour for a ‘selfie’?
Holy Instagram! – and parallel –
Say your daughter has ‘vocation’
To a secular School of Drama
Be sure they will find fault –
Not in her performances!
But insist she change her nose and chin
Recommending surgical re-interpretation
And then a dental spa for smile-aesthetics
The standard homogenised beauty
Manufactured on demand
For American Film and T.V.
Theatre once an art
It took a lifetime to learn
Is now a moment’s carousel
Of identical mannequins toned and teased
Even my Stoic non-style is a style –
They call it ‘norm-core’ now –
Amid such modish madness
Roma burns outside –
Although she philosophically remains
‘Molto-molto’
Cool within
.
Bernard Saint
Illustration: Claire Palmer
.