MAPPAMUNDI IV

Look, children, over there, are giraffes and an Arab —

All peeing against the muro of that schloss. And there

Is a palazzo where Henry or Frederick the Something stabbed

His mother in the womb. And, there, near the Duomo

Is a tomb where Somebody is buried. And this,

A capped well badly damaged by the War, acqua

Non potabile. And, here, is landscape: palms, new-plowed

Fields, vines and orchards, volcanoes, historic

And pre-historic. Careful now of fingers, watch out

For the prod of that Brahmin coaxing his sacred cow

And listen to the tintinabulations of the Vesper Bell.

Our guide book says that in this museum is the famous

Sicilian Hermaphrodite—please do not touch her penis—

And that a Prince of England got his rocks off in this hotel.