Raurica Augusta
Monday, 10 August 2009 07:54![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammerWhite rattles on curled leaves. Behind the hedges
worn pediments and cold gravestones display
abbreviated Latin, losing edges
and meaning under snow. Here, one last thing?
We stop to touch and look at rocks that told
their texts, though I just read what surfaces say,
not messages: the hand holds only cold,
the eye sees weather echo weathering.
I stamp my feet, breathe clouds, and puzzle while
her camera captures the current state of stone.
Across the road, a temple falls to gray.
Our looks agree: we go--the storm will stay.
With one last picture of a freezing tile,
we leave in ruins what the snow has sown.
---L.
worn pediments and cold gravestones display
abbreviated Latin, losing edges
and meaning under snow. Here, one last thing?
We stop to touch and look at rocks that told
their texts, though I just read what surfaces say,
not messages: the hand holds only cold,
the eye sees weather echo weathering.
I stamp my feet, breathe clouds, and puzzle while
her camera captures the current state of stone.
Across the road, a temple falls to gray.
Our looks agree: we go--the storm will stay.
With one last picture of a freezing tile,
we leave in ruins what the snow has sown.
—28 November 2005
About 15 km east of Basel, Switzerland, is the town of Kaiseraugst, which is on the site of the former Roman colony of Raurica Augusta. There's a museum and extensive archaeological excavations on display, including a restored amphitheater. It was winter, the snow was started up again, but as we were leaving, our eyes were caught by one last outdoor display, a "lapidarium" of gravestones and other carved stone texts. The poem lies, btw -- the temple was further up the street, and it was the theater opposite, still being restored.---L.