Poetry

SASSI CHIANTIGIANI


Tuscan Landscapes II


Squared stone, rough Chianti stone,
stone set square to take
the steep wall's corner weight:
bone-white, gray as old straw
or brown as bare arms when
the gathering, la vendemmia,
brings the burdened baskets
from the still-warm vineyard slopes.
Here le rondini, the swallows,
wheel and wheel in final frenzy
in shrivelling autumn skies.
Rough-laid stone of terraces,
prim walls of farmyard prisons,
the tiled towers of filial hearth;
Chianti stone of every fortressed town -
even Etruscan arch and tomb
brambled by insolent berry barbs.
Scarred stone turned by the plough;
stone to be torn down; to be hurled;
then set square again, stone on stone.