Ii. Duomo, Milan

Here living and the stone
were planned inseparable.

For all its leaping spires
and pirouetting towers —
composed in rhythms almost audible —
for all its scores of niched saintly guards,
Milan needs flesh and blood to come alive.

Across the landscape of its roof,
dunes of lead and masonry,
stonework trails, and chiseled hedges
were made for pilgrims' promenades.

And here no sign or symbol is unseemly —
" Kodak, " gelato , and " Oransoda "
are one with arrow, grid, and lamb —
the tripper and the saint both
native tenants of the roof

where chatter, shouts, and orisons agree,
all combined in choired piety.