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Aeneas & the pilgrim child set out into the city

By Tiffany Higgins

I shall build a city upon a hill
and upon a hill and upon a hill and upon a hill

          I am a little shepherd piping low
          through the valleys of Babylon

I shall build a city upon a hill
and it shall be as a light unto—

          and upon a hill and upon a hill and upon a hill a citadel—
          the world I shall build

through the valleys of Babylon
I lay down and weep

           I lay down and weep
           And weep for thee, Babylon

but then I, I recall I—
I am aloft in my omnipotence

          and so there is no problem
Added: Monday, June 30, 2014  /  From "and Aeneas stares into her helmet" (Carolina Wren Press Press 2008). Used with permission.
Tiffany Higgins

Tiffany Higgins is author of And Aeneas Stares into Her Helmet (Carolina Wren Press, 2009), selected by Evie Shockley as winner of the Carolina Wren Poetry Prize. Inhabiting a range of voices, the book asks: Where do our wars live in us? Her poems appear in Poetry, The Kenyon Review, Taos Journal of Poetry & Art, From the Fishouse, and other journals. In 2014, she was a resident at Nebraska’s Art Farm. She writes on ecocultural poetics and translates contemporary Brazilian poets, aiming to bring more diverse Brazilian voices to a wider audience. Tiffany grew up in Massachusetts and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, teaching English at several community colleges. tifhiggins.blogspot.com

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