Poetry

(March 2002)

Copyright (c) 2002 First Things 121 March 2002): 20.

End of the Road

When all roads led to Rome,
unRoman ways
made inroads
into Rome
so Rome’s ways changed.
Now when

strangers go
to Rome,
to do what Romans do,
neither they
nor Romans know
what Romans do, to do,

some even deeming
it unRoman
they once knew.

—Paul Lake