When you say ‘Sappho
She is beautiful’
Rinse that mist from your eyes
She is small and dark
A nightingale perhaps
But withered wings and body
Ambivalent by nature
All night she lies alone –
She has her just deserts
Attracting that same treatment
She meted out to others –
And to one who truly loved her
ONCE IN POMPEII
Pompeii’s ‘House of Lovers’
Re-emerged in 1933
From beneath that boorish outburst of Vesuvius
A Minister for Culture then declared
‘This story of Revival…
Rebirth and of Redemption…’
Perhaps he did not see its name derived
From a doorstep’s cryptic inscription –
‘Lovers’ Lives – Like Bees –
Pass Sweetly in this Honeyed World –
O If Only This Were So!’
Frescoes of the House are well preserved
Pastoral scenes of courtship and romance
Last gazed upon before a fall of ash
Bernard Saint
Illustration: Claire Palmer