The Garden of the Finzi-Contini--updated

 

 

Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini
[The Garden of the Finzi-Contini[

 

On a  hillside of the Emilia-Romagna
Cascading colors dark
And somber
Ivy deep green
Shrouding screaming  Etruscan faces
Paralyzed in stone
Sinews black of Cypress trees
Shadows with no breath
Of sunlight
There lay
Protected  and alone
The garden of the Finzi-Contini
Italians of the Sephardic kind
Safe and hidden
From the sounds of  war
The year nineteen  hundred and forty four
 
The fires of the world’s madness
Reached their garden door
A violation of humanity
Played in other gardens
So many times before

Graves deep and narrow
Beyond the broken garden door
Left behind and empty
In ground by ancient prayers
Made holy
Blessed for their souls to keep
In the garden of the Finzi-Contini
Italians of the Sephardic kind
The year nineteen hundred and forty four