Walking Down Temple Steps, Paestum

Standing at the top is like receiving the ends
    of sun’s rays; weightless, but urgent,
        urging one to enter the glowing arena
           where the gods are watching. Turning away, and looking down,
             earth seems resilient, patterned as it is with inadvertent
                 scraps of stone to give it weight. Almost there:
                    the light turns to shadow; now, earth has lessened,
                          composed of a splitsecond wind through the long grasses
                            that startles the lizard, dilutes the laughter;
                               the school party shrinks to air.