The Florence of Boccaccio

 

Into that year of 1348

I rode behind a hooded ghost

on the fourth horse

 

through cultivated fields

abandoned

into his city of

deserted homes and looted stores

where residents dropped

like poisoned flies

and were carted limp

to long ditches freshly dug.

 

A young woman naked covered with

blots of purple and black

walked to the street calling for

anyone to carry her dead brother.

 

A monk flung his habit into a

smoldering fire

raising his fist in protest:

“Why hast Thou forsaken us?...

Why?”

 

His lifted arm exposed

a swelling the size of an

egg, a Bubonic tattoo.

 

                                    Neal P. Willy

 

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