Its scorching fingers burn and glow
A hazy mist hides daytime ardour
But moonlight sets off Nature's show.
Its rugged crater on the skyline
Dominates the grape-filled plain
A disk has slipped in Nature's hard spine
Giving vent to raging pain.
Orange farmers, donkeys goading
Travel lava-ravaged hills
Against a backcloth of foreboding
Resigned to Etna's deathly spills.
Along the roadside steeply climbing
Nestle hamlets half-afraid
Sicilian sun at noon is blinding
Wiry lizards seek the shade.
Amid this arid desolation
Scattered gorse and prickly pear
Symbols to each generation
That life as well as death lies here.
(Written in 1984 - inspired by Leopardi's "La Ginestra")
(c) Poet in the woods 2014
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