Venice : an observation

Ostentation is one thing
           beauty another
and underlying it all
            there is or is not love
For a moment
           put to one side
the glorious mosaics
           the painted ceilings
and take to the streets
           that flank the canals
wealth is personally perishable
           insofar as it does not
survive one’s own
           generation
it transcends nothing
           it merely remains
acquiring the sad dust
           of monumental history
where tourists tread
           in their ungainly droves
Possession and power
           are one thing
but it is love alone
           that drives bodies
to meet and lips
           to touch

John Lyons