VERONA'S 1882 FLOODS: A NEW POEM...

Verona Floods, 1882

A simple marker

Told the year and the date,

Insignificant really, easily missed

And weathered amongst a myriad

Terracotta bricks above the River Adige;

A grim pointer inside the solemn church

Of Santa Maria in Organo though

Also indicated where the tumultuous inundation reached

 On the day when displaced citizens turned to God for pity,

For Verona’s disastrous fate became darker,

As heavy rain continuously pelted

And snow from the Alps unerringly melted

To flood and engulf the ancient city…

And the smudged year on the first sign was 1882

But enthralled and connected I clearly remember

That the day and month revealed my birthday:

The 17th of September…

Pete Ray

June 2017

Not only were the flood markers simple and harrowing to see, the fact that the date was 17th September 1882 obviously attracted my attention but strangely, 1882 is 68 years before 1950, my birth year and 68 is a multiple of 17…