Decoration of Etruscan Tomb in Tarquinia
Etruscan gold primitive bones
raised up iron-age shoulders
lords of the sea tall as Greeks
proto west Europeans
whose women held privilege
a civilized city-state culture
of warrior merchants
in league of its talents for trade
master architects winemakers
metalwork artisans blessed
by exquisite refined ken
of function and form
a Tyrrhenian people who
thrived in the unwritten mists
of Italic prehistory
long before Gaius Octavius
undertook schema for empire
taking significant parts
of their models and myths
for the canons of Rome
a material people whose
ruins and relics still tantalize
all but mere gleanings of tombs
lost to conquest by time
life and language and liturgies
left to meticulous guesswork
of erudite dons who like me
share this bloodline of mystery
veins running sweet with
enigma and echo of origins
favored by warmth
in the whispers of
bronze Tuscan sun
Poesy plus Polemics 