Petra

        Our little boys like
        camel rides
        and scramble climbing on ancient ruins.
        So many places to ramble...

        So beautiful, especially
        the spring flowers
        that grow everywhere,
        even out of rock and
        Roman ruins.
        
        History is everywhere you look
        and our little boys like
        fiddling with stones:
        They fill their pockets.
        
        Outside the Grand Treasury that rises
        from rosy shades of sandstone
        into a precisely carved edifice
        of aesthetic sensitivity unsurpassed...

        Our little boys glance up briefly
        and then browse back at the ground,
        eyes absorbed in the trove of little stones-
        eager little hands
        clutch
        all they can.

poem copyright ©2000 Anne Selden Annab