Fontanelle Cemetery
By Faith Schroeder
1656: plagues drive victims to your door-
Breathless bodies interred in breathless caves-
Flesh decays to bone on the dirt floor,
Corpses rise from shallow graves
When cave mouth is taken by spring rain.
Dearly departed wash out into Napoli.
Many pile where once only one had lain
Thrown back into the caves of Napoli.
Indigent, plagued, unknown
Join party-mix piles of bone
Like Lego, 40,000 bodies built
Into pillars, doors, and from sills spilt.
Now: lines of sonnet reach beyond ken
To wash you all out again.
1656: plagues drive victims to your door-
Breathless bodies interred in breathless caves-
Flesh decays to bone on the dirt floor,
Corpses rise from shallow graves
When cave mouth is taken by spring rain.
Dearly departed wash out into Napoli.
Many pile where once only one had lain
Thrown back into the caves of Napoli.
Indigent, plagued, unknown
Join party-mix piles of bone
Like Lego, 40,000 bodies built
Into pillars, doors, and from sills spilt.
Now: lines of sonnet reach beyond ken
To wash you all out again.