An old cemetery

This afternoon I walked around Athens, from Syntagma to Omonia and then to the Keramikos, the cemetery of ancient times, which is basically a huge open-air museum of death through 15 centuries: from pre-classical Greece, through roman times and beyond. I sat on the grass in this necropolis for a couple hours, my head resting against the ancient city walls, surrounded by ruins, stele, sculptures and un-excavated mounds. I read a novel, and beyond this green, fenced-off island of sandwiched time, the city went on, uncaring: heavy traffic, smog, even trains, to my left, rumbling in and out of the ground.