your email was well-timed

and equally well-received

Germanicus
I see you have removed

your father’s bust from your masthead

his victories over the Suevi
is this to assuage his critics

who always seem so close

a mere fingertip away
or the whims of a distant Emperor?
I detect a certain reticence

in your typeface

I miss the sanguine purple
but confess to having winced at the presumption
your aunt informs me

the chatlines are milling with rumours

of Julia Livilla and a certain procurator
the forums were once

a great comfort to your aunt

exiled to these provinces
but now she comes to me

with a face full of anguish

and a pledge to consign her notebook to the grotto
ten sesterces a day I give

to one of the slave boys

to bury her router in the potash
and each night I ache with pity

at her abject sighs

over the mulish songs of the Berbers
conjure the gateway to her happiness from my sleeve