If Faustina

had died in the twenty-first century they would have built her a high-rise with downtown’s best view

or a 5.8 million dollar home

in the Hollywood hills, complete

with a 1.3 million dollar enclosure wall

(and high tech surveillance system) overlooking the community’s daily somewhat seedy activities

special editions and tributes published upon the news of her passing stating, “Maverick”

the public would pretend they’d known what had made her special

*Wallpaper™ would salute hotels where she’d stayed and restaurants where she’d dined, commenting on how the chef had been an old and trusted friend,

his photograph shown

Oprah™ would commiserate with her audience on an Angel Network™ update show (comparing Faustina to Maya Angelou)

—— forgeries of her personal items

(as shown in biography photographs)

would sell for thousands of dollars on Ebay™ —- the dice of our age being cast for Christian relics

But it wasn’t the twenty-first century —

her passing

had been given the best

by her hometown —

a temple in her honour constructed by Rome’s Emperor

people walked by on their way to market or to meet friends, craned

their necks, admired the massive Corinthian columns

with reverence as if heaven itself opened above her posthumous gift

—Melda Gibson

[9]