It must have been hard enough to
live six decades into the 1570s of Venice,
let alone have a touch
of the plague,
be thrown in a mass grave
on the island of Lazzaretto Nuovo
across the waters
from your loved ones,
in the company of shroud eaters
But then to be indecently chiseled
into the visual memory of
all who happened to catch
(no catch and release for this one)
the Yahoo! News one day,
as we casually called up our e-mail,
the 16th century female skull
with her only gravestone
a brick stuck in her jaws . . .
Opprobrium Eternal
After all she endured,
she lay for stony centuries 
in that manner,
cursed as a vampire
simply because,
on grave-reopening,
a simple bacterial deed 
in the process of decomposition
had left a bloody mouth hole 
in her shroud 
So today,
with the powers invested in Poetry,
I rechristen her,
across an ocean,
in the morning rain,
mourning reign
Donna Amelia Maria Zerlina Mariella 
Elena Diphullia Angelico,
Blessed Citizen of Venice
May she rest now 
under the fermata of
Enlightened Redemption


© 2009 by Katrin Talbot
Used with the author's permission.