Rovinj

The silver sea reaches to the sky’s edge
melting in the wildfire of sunset.
From this tower you can see
the whole of it undulating—
a body of silver covered in flame.
And there in its waves
a white shape like a boat
drifts toward the land. 

Is this what the people saw
when the coffin of St. Euphemia
arrived on this rocky shore?
And what the boy saw
who hearing her call
coaxed his two little cows
into heaving her marble coffin
from the water and carrying it
up the steep hill to this place
in the heart of the cape? 

This tower has been built for her
and for the boy with a heart of gold
and the strength of an ox,
who salvaged her from the sea
as she burned like a pearl of fire.

CLIFFORD VENHO

Clifford Venho is a poet, writer, and translator. His poetry has appeared in The Dewdrop, Modern Literature, La Piccioletta Barca, and elsewhere. His translation of Novalis’ Hymns to the Night was published by Mercury Press (2015), and his essays have appeared in The Decadent Review and Being Human.