The Silk Princess
Oh Maiden of the East
Bear thee they silken treasure
Wrapped in Ebony
The hair of rice water
And jasmine
She stole a secret
Over five hundred years old
And birthed
The Byzantine Brocade
The Rialto
The wide white marble
is holding my eyes
And secretly I watch
The ladies from China
Gushing over
The Grand Canal
The Metal Howl
I left the world behind
An avenue of waste
And large trees lined
My mind in Cannaregio
They passed the dog
From boat and dock
To bedroom door
And evening bells
They rang like
A metal howl
And I waited for Tiramisu
By the last canal
In Murano, I love you
Dream glass hanging,
and holding light
The pale blush
of a lover's cheek
Like rainbow peach
and living embers
Venice
My loft is on the hanging waters
gentle and furious
old and able
I feel the weeping heart
of history's finest
Her bridges frame me
and break me into trinkets
of blue
dangling down from
the golden ceiling
The Water of Ghosts
The water of ghosts and
merchants and ladies
waiting in silk
The eastern borne
A regalia of iron
and amber
All the wooden goods
from Croatia
The Adriatic is sinking and
the sea is holy
The night is shy
and nowhere is not here
I armoured the black vessels
with coffee and spices
and angered the Doge
at the lion’s door