Venice fluid city of old once stood alone
Amid it's silky watery domain
Then a bridge was built in 1849
Linked the Isle to all of Italy
Its future irrevocably set in motion
People descending like worker ants in droves
Tevenia Bridge the second largest
Purveyor of inquisitive hurried feet
Forced the sleepy lulling isle
To gradually at first imperceptibly then
Unrecognizably to transform
Into a bustling tourist destination
Alas never again a quiet meditative cultural retreat
It became Italy's opulent floating azure blue and sanded city
Palaces on tenuous plinths, Courtesan's Houses, galore
Where once masked balls courted by Byron and Casanova
Their barely seen eyes ever noted
Hid their identity along with their secrets and games
Danced pranced and dallied
Making free love without rules
Until all wine drunk energy waned then spent
Along those candlelit winding passages at night
Lovers would wend to find a secret place
To indulge their bodies of ecstatic delight
The men just enjoying their needs being met
But women hoping to create that elusive bond
By which men if not in love did all to abscond
Aqua Blue Grand Canal coursing veinlike
Through its watery streets decked with jetties to alight
Tourists flock intrigued like a moth to an errant flame
To set free their imagination in visionary flight
Let it breath live expand and soar so bright
Gondolas with a handsome rowers wearing
Jaunty black caps with red and white striped shirts
Stream along romantic couples to their sheer delight
Under pretty arched bridges in smaller canals
Makes them shriek with awe delight awe and laughter
Finding themselves in the inspiring St Mark's Square
With gothic church St Mark's Basilica and piazzas adorn each side
Smartly dressed orchestras playing in cafes
Under gently billowing cream canopies
The lover's where they are left alone
In peace for stolen kisses and love laden stares
Until rescued again into their black sleek vessel
Continue their journey of lovers treats
Such sweet memories wherein their future
Will once again lucidly be retrieved
To once again remember yet again to astound
Eyes aloft stroking each others arms
Capturing the views and ambiance
Renaissance buildings magnificent churches still majestic
Steeped in times and events past
To afford historians their rhetoric
To remember to uplift again
In perhaps darker and less happy times
Yet still the world continues to incrementally descend
Grinding down this unique paradise citadel
Its ancient foundations and palaces standing
On tenuously less firm foundations and ground
Will this most astounding astonishing city
Be in the midst of its so needed rescue
Or will it slowly and imperceptibly sink
Leaving this tribute of man's ingenuity
A monolith of Italian virtuosity and artistic flair
Teetering at the behest of man's inquisitiveness
Of the city holding a lair of names
"La Dominante" "Queen of the Adriatic" "City of Masks"
"City of Water" "City of Bridges", "The Floating City"
Yet man and nature holds the future of Venice
In its thoughtless curious ever tightening grasp
Yet there is now hope to save it from sinking at last....
Venice In Peril shall be a tragedy Finally thwarted and permanently consigned to the past......
Copyright All Rights Reserved Natasha Anne Kelleher December 2019
