Via di Francesco, Day 20: Ceseli - Arrone

Tuesday, June 13
15.5 km
221 m

Today I am grateful for flats, river valleys, and shade, but the dominant memory from the day is not gratitude, but loathing. For halfway through our day, we passed a farm with two kittens crying pitifully for food. One with enough energy to creep by the road searching for any crawling thing, another so starved it often tipped over, face first, into the dust. Its eyes couldn't focus.

I was so angry. I'm still angry. At a farm filled with fresh hay and bursting fruit trees, why does any animal starve? Cruelty? Inattention? Culture? There is no excuse. Less so because the farm's only dog, chained to the fence, cowered, terrified, when I offered words, pets, and food.

I cut up bits of pork and cheese for the bolder cat. I tried to feed the starving dog, but he whimpered and hid. The starving kitten couldn't't even follow the sound of my voice. I threw bits of sausage over the fence, desperately hoping she would find it.  Some days, the way is flat and easy, our minds are clear and bright. And some days  the world of men is arrestingly painful.

Whatever poetry I have possessed in previous days is lost, robbed by the cruelty of man. May man learn, may we be more kind as less cruel, may the future be a place of both forgiveness and prosperity, for today is a lost day.

We soaked our tired feet in a beautiful spring just north of town. My heart leapt, I hoped, I tried to forget. Today, I fed a hungry belly. Tomorrow...