Caput Mundi Poem by john coldwell

Buongiono, Benvenuto!
At last to Rome you've come,
At last you paths have found it,
This in your heart is home.
Amongst it's ancient maestrie,
Let eyes and spirit stroll,
In shady Trastavere's
Cobbled alleyways of the soul.

‘Tis I that stands on Trajan's Mount,
His ashes at my feet,
His victory column in death does show,
The Emperor's last defeat..
From here I see the slaughterhouse,
That drew the vagrant crowd,
To see my brothers tortured lives,
Played out in death unbowed.

Now who keeps the city Gate?
Now who holds the keys?
The glory that did once make Rome,
Was deaf to martyrs pleas.
But theirs is the Eternal City,
And this a bouldered ruin,
It's broken columns are rotten teeth,
It's pride is it's undoing.

Hard by stands our brother Paul,
In Marcus Aurelius's stead.
Who inthis place at Nero's wish,
He did treacherously behead.
Now who holds the city gate?
And now who sets men free?
Nay not the Epaphroditus sword,
I, St Peter, hold the key.


Beneath Bernini's baldachin,
There they say I lie,
Thus all the pomp of Papacy,
Is gathered here on high.
Let all the earth make pilgrimage,
Let every soul pursue,
A path, to this, The Lord's House,
And never mind the queue..