THE LAST ROMAN IN BRITAIN TAKES HIS BATH
The
last Roman in Britain is taking a bath
in
Calleva Atrebatorum
while
there is still wood to keep the balineum’s
fires stoked.
Night is coming on, but
the water
reflects no stars, and even near boiling
the unnamed Latin feels the cold.
Caesar is preoccupied with Visigoths
and has told the cities in Britain to see
to their own defences.
Caesar is holed up like a rat in Ravenna,
surrounded by Visigoths and night is falling.
Caesar doesn’t give a damn
about Britain or perfumed oils.
The
last Roman in Britain is taking a bath.
Maximus
has left the island
taking
with him troops from the wall that Hadrian built.
The
Saxons, Picts, and the Scoti
gather
in like nightfall and the last Roman
in
Britain needs no oracle to see the dice
has
been cast.
Jupiter,
Sol Invictus, Isis and Mithras
know
him, but night is falling across the Empire.
Fifteen
hundred years later
the
descendent of colonists in New Zealand
will
imagine him, but that is of little use
as
he sinks furtively into the warm water at twilight.
Comments
Post a Comment