staring just north of the afterlife
is an infinite blue expanse;
bedrock of the basilica unearthing her
realm of myth.

broken heads of statues are
found by the radiance of marble noon,
her contradictions build such a secret
hidden place
beneath the courtyard of scholars’ books.

yet the distended, black granite skeleton
would be a wellspring of royal remains
if underneath culumn-fragments
a campaign of thriving law still hovered in
the temple walls.