Hand in Hand/In the Duomo

by Alice MacDonald Fleming

In the Duomo

IT was a Festa and a busy throng
Filled the Duomo, whose white arches rise
Like a great lily under Tuscan skies,
Where Giotto's Tower stands erect and strong,
The Duomo's slender throat and silver tongue,
Built, when men's faith shone out without dis-disguise:
More sure of right, more confident of wrong
Than in our twentieth century subtleties.

The incense rose like heavy music hymned,
I watched an old man praying on his knee,
"Fiat lux, Domine" his only plea;
I wondered, till 1 saw blind eyes, red-rimmed.
Blind! Yet the light of Faith shone radiantly
And he, in darkness, left my vision dimmed.