I’m walking beside them in Pompeii.
We’re tourists of course.  I’m thirteen,
freshly disappointed, big lips, blue
blazer, man’s trench coat, pair of
beginner balls dangling.
Every so often, kneeling to touch
the ground, I pick something up –
keys, coins, a ticket to the locker
where my mother keeps her superstitions.
What’re these? I say, laughing, stuffing
things in my pockets. Think of them [...]