Robert Tilleard

LA VESPA

There she is waiting, wearing the purple,

More royal than the absentee princess

Who went on an unscheduled holiday

In Rome tearing round the Colisseum.

(Although no relation, Vespasian’s

Monument to good fun and bloody game -

Pane e chichi for the plebeians).

Attendant on her owner emerging,

Sensuously perched on radiant tiles,

Seemingly tethered to a Mondrian,

Painted earth and ochre on an off day;

Wasp coloured walls sheltering violets.

Who will emerge in the cool, dark doorway?

For it can never be a Miss Hepburn

Or a Mr Peck, now crumbling like the walls,

But a ragazzo and a ragazza,

Suitably alla moda l\'ultima,

As exhilarating as their fresh steed.