ASHLEY CAPES
twenty-thousand heartbeats
when your umbrella doesn't open
all that well
our guide laughs, asking if it was
purchased in Naplesbefore into the city we go,
with just enough rain
to darken Pompeii's streetsas the memory of washing
drying against orange
buildings
disappears in an instantas the size of the place hits us
and we try to imagine the moment
twenty-thousand heartbeats
turned to stone.
- Ashley Capes teaches Media and English in Victoria. He moderates online renku site 'Issa's Snail' and his latest poetry collection, a haiku chapbook, Orion Tips the Saucepan was released by Picaro Press in 2010. He occasionally dabbles in film and is slowly learning piano. He also loves Studio Ghibli films.