Big Bad Budd

I’ve seen the chains of St. Peter

and heard thunder form the sky

over the city of Rome.

A light rain falling now

and last night

I saw Kill Bill in Italian.


A lot o f grass grows now

below what was once

a wooden stage in the Coliseum.

Starving wild animals brought up

by pulleys to eat the wrongdoers.

A town guide told me Nero committed suicide

and in the newspaper today

………………...It said:

“Poets die earlier than normal people.”


Michael Madsen, The Complete Poetic Works. Vol. I: 1995-2005