(A.D. 1703)

A crumb of light
high on the southern wall
of a pagan frigidarium
supposedly built by Christian slaves
under the Emperor Diocletian
(but there were ways out
to forswear libel flee profane)
and now become a church

That pure ellipsis trembles
by which one thing becomes another
moving leisurely in a double focus
across the marble inlay of a floor
wrought with signs of the zodiac
Clouds swim across
as it lights the hooves of an amiable ram
done in giallo antico

In the heavens as on earth
what is taken for observed truth
is not quite the same thing as law
The historian writes As the lives 
of the faithful became
less mortified and austere
they were every day less ambitious
of the honors of martyrdom

Beyond the heliacal hole
is the ineffable core
toward which the motes climb and climb
A few people wait far below
impatiently as if knowing
they must respect this motion
but no longer knowing quite why
and at 12:17:45 exactly

by my watch (legal time not solar time)
the macula crosses the bronze rail
it walks between Resurrection and Resurrection
silent traveler considering one by one
the sequence of letters
T E R M I N U S  P A S C H A E
considering the disordered world
humans have made of paradise