IMPROVISATION# 310
WALKED BY THE MUSEUM WALLS
PIRANESI(1720-1778)


With a view of a cold dawn
the sun risen out by shadows
near a pond by birches
hearing a chorus of sparrows
cardinals and other birds
amid hidden bulbous plants
along Boston's Fenway
here at the museum walls
on this February
by narrow steps
eating almonds
not far from home
when pleasant bulging eyes
wish to expect more
from Piranesi's grey halls
with "Capricious Inventions''
expanding into a visionary Rome
we are already captured
into buildings,
over his bridges drawings
of neoclassic spaces
as we inspect
his imprisoned by doors
behind his dungeons and jails
to flood his audience with the light
from a scale of imaginary colors
by satin sofas
as we recite declensions
at antiquity's phrases of Latin
speaking so fast that our mind races
while remaining in the dark
of other images on nearby floors
which command a renaissance
of sparkling words
at our nascent new modernity.