Palestrina

Featured in the January 2021 Issue of The Open Doors Review. View Magazine Here.

Poetry by Lillia Parker

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An old woman pushes open the shutters

leans out of the window

Content painted on her face

as she breathes in 

the countryside air

sheets and shirts 

pinned to clotheslines 

drape beneath her

Her brown stucco house stands on the edge

of the Palestrina

the Ancient hill

ruins of a grand temple behind her

Italy laid before her

fields and villages and mountains

stretch for miles

reaching out to touch

the thin blue horizon

of the sea

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Author Bio: I am seventeen years old and live in Washington State, where I am a senior at Bear Creek. I went on a trip to Italy (Rome and Florence) with my Latin class two years ago, and it was one of the best times of my life. I had never left North America, and I learned so much from Italy’s culture and history. It gave me a huge travel bug and profoundly changed how I view the world. Rome is now one of my favorite places on Earth, and I hope to return there someday soon. When I am moved by something I write it down, and it usually emerges as verse. Throughout the trip to Italy I typed out pages of poetry on my phone, documenting my experiences.