(Giarre Riposto a Taormina) (Sicilia 18)

Etna is in clouds now.
This morning, four days after being
brought into a world of peace in Catania
she was shining.
how fortunate a people to have her.
how lucky they are, here,
ready for the big flood of fire
that is pending for them.

she hides her head precisely for this reason.
she doesn’t want to let any ideas
get carried away or
used as a basis for paranoia.

the sea waits, the sky waits.
the people don’t.
if the inevitable is always death
then fear is irrational.