Splendour (February)

 [For Susan Southall] If you were Caesar, which you’re not, it wasn’t enough for your built environment to be splendid, it had to be splendiferous. Same with those he cared, carefully, to call friends. Friends, Romans, Splendiferous! Chisellers chiseled the word into entablatures. Odd how you could end up on the wrong side when the coin was tossed. Even Caesar, who watched his head more than most. Romans, like us, loved that which the hymn calls “daylight’s splendour”, how it warmed the February ice-ground and tickled the broad beans beneath. It was the greatest show on earth, while it lasted.

The hymn "Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness"
https://hymnary.org/text/deck_thyself_my_soul_with_gladness_leave