Unmasked ashen faces
Wide staring eyes in flames frozen
Wine spilled shadows
Struck by Apollo’s arrow
Tumbling in the pumice rain
Blot out the sun on this Hellenic mystery
Blow the echoes that remain
To rouse in memory the ancient voice
That carved its name in Roman cement
The market voices
Call out the choices
When the coins jingle
The jewelry twinkles
A maiden laughs
A child cries
The hum and hustle
The artifacts of daily life
But darkness slumbers
Wakes up during the night
In nauseous fumes
Jupiter’s thunder
Roaring
Molten in scalding flows
Its sulfurous kisses
Even Hercules they buried
Then later in the silence
The mist blowing over the hills
In the cracks, there grew a flower
That stills dances in the wind
"Oh hi there. Are you enjoying yourself? That's good. Nice poetry, isn't it? Very historical and dramatic. Goes great with hot cocoa. We're your new neighbors, so we thought we come and say hi. We hope to get to know you better now that we live next to each other. Well, see you around, neighbor!"
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