Towns that were Cities

Painted in watercolors through the Adriatic coast,
orange tiles and fantasy forts,
churches and their sunny steeples,
or even mosques chiming over
the cliff's stone,
erasing the boundary between fortress and
mountain, between vision and sentiment,
the sea's light accompanying all inland,
to each alley, with no way out, other
than the past, with no way in
other than the sweet imagination
that created each façade, each minuscule step,
surviving the craziness
of a human being wrapped in wars,
and I don't understand:

how did he not stop, when his breath left
upon seeing these towns,
ancient cities of one equal human race,
that yearned to build
and yearned to destroy?