Venice, Italy is one of the beautiful and historical places in the world that we could all use some familiarity. This is a look at Piazza San Marco.
Venice - Piazza San Marco
by Michael Doyle
Through the Bacino di San Marco we arrive
We start our journey through columns come alive
In a welcome familiar through the centuries
This speaks to us of their storied history
One of St Mark and the other of St Theodore
As a perfection of theft and just a bit more
Patron saints memorialized as Venice would do
Close enough to the gates of Heaven for me and you
Games of chance and with a focus of execution
Connected by words of well spoken elocution
The Doge's Palace stands off in its pride
An orchard turned in time with an architectural stride
Gathered at the Broglio to politic and decide each case
Embroiled as it is for the openly masked in and of face
Justice was served as a matter of acknowledged conspiracy
Overthrow gone wrong in this instance was no real mystery
The Foscari Arch is a thing of sweet Italian romance
A papered gate of notorious ignorance and skewed chance
Its Roman emperors were taken as a matter of war spoils
As snark symbol that the republicans had enough of royals
The Basilica of San Marco was long family held
By the oligarchic family's union of power and field
Political and spiritual as a thing of temporal power
Byzantine in its symmetry held in its grandest hour
Painted mosaics scattered through the streams of time
Whisper their secrets so completely and totally sublime
Four horsemen rest in the best of their stolen adornment
Triumphal as it were of the revered Venetian government
These are the things of culture and ancient society
When the earthly win over any feigned sense of piety
Cafes of elegance inscribe their tragic triangle
Of an old square from which old men argue and tangle
Yet, an angel sits perched meant as a guiding light
To bring home all of the merchants every night
Napoleon built his own grand palace there to live
But this was maybe too much for even Venetians to forgive
(c) May 29, 2020 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
