‘Only up onto the rooftop get’ and hear

Jets’ pinpoint thunder, their scheduled roar –

Rome-Milan express, bird-trill, hacksaw

Nextdoor (or is it ‘er rotolino’?),

Hammerblows distance softens to marakas.

Sonic thread linking arch with Pyramid,

Landmark gazometro, belltower, dome,

Trams rattle reassuring red-green-red;

Half-a-city nestles in my inner ear,

Its descant extending the range of home.

Local long jump champion, now far now near

A dogbark clears districts; sirens take turns

With this butterfly, exquisite silence

Signaling transit between heaven knows where.