Scuola Metafisica - De Chirico Poem by Douglas Scotney

For centuries,
therefore for Centurians,
4 was IIII and 9 was VIIII.

Brevitists won the day
and 4 became IV and 9 IX.

Jokers and Extreme Reversalists
put IIIIV for 1 and IIIIX for 6.

De Chirico painted IIX for VIII
on the clock of 'Enigma Of The Hour'.
As his 4 was IIII,
his clock was a disturbing mix
of tendencies Reversalist and Centurian.

One explorer brought up
Nietzschean, Schopenhauerian.

'I'm none of those, ' said he,
'I'm the Metaphysician of Italy.'