What I do

After Acts 28

To walk in this city, even

between guards, soldiers

escorting their prisoner,

even so to walk here is

the feel the throb of empire,

a bustle of commerce,

a convulsion, an excitement,

orators in the streets, shouts,

and noise, constant noise

abating only at late night, yet

this place pulsates,

the sheer excitement of what

men call the center

of the world, the center

of the universe.

Yet I see a weed between

paving stones, a weed flowering

as its grows. I do what I know

to do, from the beginning:

to speak, perhaps to preach,

even with my soldier guards

on each side.

Illustration: Paul in Rome by Christoph Weigel (German engraver, 1654-1725).