Postcard from Piazza Navona III

9/14/07
6:29pm

To You-Who-Are-Not-Present,

While light and architecture dominated the space of the Piazza Navona in the afternoon and morning, humans conquer the evening. The Piazza is made up of families, couples, and lone walkers that orbit around the fountains. Like bacteria they ocassionally form aggregate membranes that surround a human nucleus, some entertainer. Tonight it is a man that rides a unicycle around in circles. Garbage men and police sit around the perifery of the square. An old man with a violin plays furiously, while the rest of his tired body supports itself on the rail of the Fountain of Neptune.
The obelisk, throne of the sun god, no longer holds the light of day. It is now lit from below by the vendors lights, which shoot upward into the air trying to outdo the weary obelisk. The top of S. Agnese in Agone glows red, hinting at a sunset somewhere far beyond the buildings of the city. Through all the other noise I can hear a child singing in some language I do not know, but to me it sounds like a song devoted to the ending of the day.