“Forty Days in Italian” by Celia Berrell

Venice, in the Middle Ages

feared infection from the boats

that visited its harboured stages,

ordering sailors to “stay afloat!”

For forty days they had to anchor.

NOT set foot on Venice land,

to make sure none were sick and rank

or had bubonic plague at hand.

Quaranta giorni (Kwa-rant-a jee-or-nee)

is “Forty Days” in Italian.

That’s where the word for isolation

known as QUARANTINE began.

Australian Children’s Poetry