“Bastion Cities or Trace Italienne” by Michael Martone

Shutterstock AI-generated image of Florence, Italy

“Bastion Cities or Trace Italienne” by Michael Martone

 Gunpowder changed everything.  Curtain walls of stone gave way, literally, with the
shock of shot. Of course, it was Michelangelo who turned Florence into a star.
Leonardo’s Palmanova became the ideal city. The names for all the parts were like
poems, little poems, like the parts of a poem.  The Bastion and the Ditch. The Glacis,
that grassy inflection.  Horn works!  Crown works! Dead zones now became deadly
with intersecting fields of fire. Redoubts and Ravelins!  Lunettes!  Tenailles and
Tenaillons! Counterguards and Cordons!  Faussebrayes! Banquettes and Barbettes!
Scarps and Counterscarps! They scan! They meter! Formal and beautiful! A Golden
Mean! A raised ratio!

“The Athenian Long Walls” by Michael Martone
“Bam, Iran” by Michael Martone
“Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington D.C.” by Michael Martone

Contributor’s note: Michael Martone was born on August 22, 1955 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Since 1977, he has written nearly 30 books and chapbooks. Until his retirement in 2020, he was a professor at the Program in Creative Writing at the University of Alabama. He is the author of Plain Air: Sketches from Winesburg, Indiana; Fort Wayne is Seventh on Hitler’s List, and nearly 30 other books and chapbooks, many of them centered in the Midwest. Many of his works challenge accepted conventions of writing such as those found in biographical notes—like this one where Martone writes about himself.