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Heri

Heri was the only oriental living in Sicilia.
His mother, a concubine to Mussolini,
A gift from Emperor Hirohito.
She had disappeared after the war,
Rumored to be buried beneath 
A statue of Hitler, now destroyed.
Heri had been stolen away by nuns of S. Calegero,
Brought to Sicilia in a bamboo raft.
He grew up in the monastery,
Spoke Sicilian, cooked marvelous Marsalian dishes.
At twenty-one he was turned out,
Became a cook at Antonio's Ristorante in Marsala.
Twenty seven years later he was sentenced to the firing squad.
He had killed an American poet-laureate tourist
With a chopping knife.
The poet had been making jokes about Mussolini 
On the anniversary of his death.