assisi

Question 1

stanza one

Answer 1

The dwarf with his hands on backwards 
sat, slumped like a half-filled sack 
on tiny twisted legs from which 
sawdust might run,
out side the three tiers of churches built 
in honour of St francis, brother 
of the poor, talked with birds, over whom 
he had the advantage 
of not being dead yet

Question 2

stanza two

Answer 2

A priest explained
how clever it was of Giotto
to make his frescoes tell stories
that would reveal to the illiterate the goodness
of God and the suffering of His Son. I understood
the explanation and
the cleverness

Question 3

stanza three

Answer 3

A rush of tourists clucking contentedly,
fluttered after him as he scattered 
the grain of the Word. It was they who had passed
the ruined temple outside, whose eyes
wept pus, whose back was higher 
than his head, whose lopsided mouth
said grazie in a voice as sweet 
as a child’s when she speaks to her mother
or a bird when it spoke
to St Francis