Earthquakes Shake Assisi, 26 September 1997

I. The Cause
Duomos crumble on
land unsatisfied. Stomach
grumbling. Craving veal.

II. Fragment in a Museum Case
Cherub’s face. Giotto’s
fresco wrecked. Fragments displayed
for travelling show.

III. St. Francis’s Valuable Reliquaries
Earthly faults destroy
structure—once beautiful, monks’
treasures in rubble.

IV. Prayer for St. Francis
You with stigmata
could not prevent your church’s
instability.