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