pasquinade: noun – 1. a lampoon posted in a public place 2. satirical writing: satire: pasquinade – transitive verb

The statue Pasquino in Rome is a place where people post pasquinades. Image from atlanteditorino.it

The Next Pasquinade

While he pillages the public square,
She looks deeply into the pirate’s murky eyes
Called to action by pasquinade
Cleaned from view by the corrupt
The statue still glistening damp
Plump fruits abandoned, their vendors joining
The stampede over the trampled
Creating new satire between the fear
The attack litters bodies, looted to skeletons
Nothing left to tell their tales
Who will dress Pasquino,
And laugh at the undressing of powers?
Terrorists along a fine line to define
Where the cobbles were once flat
They crack and rise to trip the unfortunate fleeing
The coming dusk smells of blood and ejecta
An accumulated concentration of defeat
Splattered upon the gray armless torso, the first to talk
Spreading from the Palazzo Brashi,
The conquerors whoop victory and begin their play
The joke-revealing slant-light of sunset their audience.

This poem was inspired by “Roman Outposts” from The Poetry of Derek Walcott 1948-2013

I posted this to Open Link Night #218 on dVerse Poets Pub