#1632 - the emperor’s drunk soldiery

 

1632

5.171

19.vi.24

the emperor’s drunk soldiery

for Joseph Tawadros’ ‘Constantinople’

 

a narrow bathhouse laneway

shadow flit

vernacular

 

wine in spent skins

hither

 

the city, a wind up

the market

 

bright herbs

 

bow and quiver

 

an attic of the day

all dust

 

fires great

and greater sieges

 

coin shows

a lonely moon

one star

 

streets all laid apart to tell

a mechanism of the town

 

the cistern

old waters plash

and set to sing

how Hero and Leander

 

a catapult of fire

 

such a sky if you’ll believe

 

waxed moustache to point the way

strings fretless

 

but the heart knows where

 

there was another before

that city lost forever

 

to time

from time

 

and rolling home

rolling home

 

let’s see whom we’ll find there 

watch and listen Joseph Tawadros' 'Constantinople' at - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpZMSTU8rJU