Eye

 

When in Rome, go to riotous Raphael

Crowded with weekday shoppers in bold folds,

Their once-in-a-lifetime vistas untold

Where empires’ blockbusters never fail.

Vespas buzz out of sight of oculus;

Palaces peer down, churches seek repair.

Human-high inscriptions defy despair,

Cool sublime atop the ridiculous.

Eye summonses, with palindrome nerve

Through curves and white staircases of the brain

Perfectly lucid in every detail,

Last judgments upon paradigm female

And paragon male in Carrara grain,

Ruins, roads and remains without reserve.

 

 

Note: Not only is 'eye' a palindrome, it is one of those words in English that is self-descriptive, with its y of a nose and mouth. The sonnet plays with how our sight is an extraordinary palindrome in which everything out there is repeated in reverse inside us. If you had to choose a place to describe how inside us is everything we need to perceive outside, replicated in all its complexity, Rome would have to be a frontrunner.