The Children of Vesuvius

and there will come a day
when the children play in the blackened soil
and stare at the mountain peak
and make pretend
about the monsters at the summit.
and there will come a day 
when the climbers
drag their gear to the top,
camp out in the crater,
and call the mountain
“conquered.”
and there will come a day
when the soil
is fertile again,
because god has blessed it so,
and the grapes they grow
are called perfect and heavenly,
and there will come a day
when the castings 
wither away
to the ash that they once were
and the histories
become stories, become tales,
become myths.
and they will say “there’s nothing to fear,
let’s stay here.”