Petra’s Promise: An Introduction
A collection of poems following the story of a young girl, Petra, and her trusty hound dog, Kosmos, as they navigate Campi Flegrei—the flaming “Phlegraean” fields in the south of Italy.
Student Work: geology
Petra’s Promise: Part I. Primeval Petra
High noon and/ sweat beads drip on marble swirls/ down in the market/ where chemise silks sway/ limpid in the springtime breeze
Part II. Petra Protector, 1538
Pozzuoli
Weeks, the roads rumble
out under feet passing
on Pozzuoli soil, streets
A gentle roll of the heel, a new
pleat in the pasture
All but one stroll openly,
pleasants, possessed in routine
except for
a Girl of fourteen …
Part III. Petra, Present
New York City, Museum of Natural History
Petra petrologist
stands in her lab
a Woman of forty,
a Woman well learned
holds old harmony in her Home
of some souls lived past, of
a Girl of four made from…