THE BANDIT OF MONTE LEPRE
by Fayette Jones-Ziegler
c 2009
ONE
THE ISLAND OF PERSEPHONE
Rising craggy midst the sea
as an Alpine city forbiddingly
which the Lord of Olympus, Zeus,
gave as a gift onto Persephone;
charmed, possessing a gentle tempting
not so unlike the Sirens’ call,
pulling the seduced traveler close
for unknown fate to befall;
reposing as the mistress of Pluto escaping,
though held onto tightly
by the jealous sea as if Pluto
were reaching out for his Persephone;
this is Sicily that Goethe painted
two hundred springs ago:
“Without Sicily, Italy leaves
not image for the soul to know.”
Resting in the mountains above Palermo
are the villages and towns
sometimes isolated and still primitive,
hidden or hanging, looking down
at the gardened city and seascape.
Snaking their way up into
these mountains and towns
are narrow ribbons of roads but a few.
One twists its way to the southwest
and then forks off and leads