Venice.
Land and sea merged in uneasy coexistence.
Great architecture floats on water
where The Built Environment is liquid lacking in liquidity.
Birmingham
has more kilometres of canals
And will likely still be Birmingham
when Venice
has sunk beneath the waves.
For the sea is seeking Adriatic recompense
for medieval centuries
of domination by the city state,
rebelling only now
against the erstwhile power
and corruption of the long gone
dog days of the Doges,
and the place is sinking,
and it will cost a waving arm
and kicking leg
to keep its drowning head
above the water.
On any coast but this,
at the almost tideless dead end
of an aquatic cul-de-sac,
Venice would have vanished long ago,
inundated,
eroded into oblivion,
but here, with its liquidity in doubt,
it will most likely, simply be priced out
of all existence,
gone,
like most of its gondolas,
for a song sung to a small guitar.
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Author Notes
I remember seeing a television documentary about Venice and its threatened inundation. Apparently the cost of saving the place will be astronomical, but I'm sure that the money will be found, for Venice is unique and truly, Birmingham presents no challenge as far as architectural beauty is concerned, even if it has a greater canal mileage.
This is the first of two very different free style poems on the subject of inundation and unusually for me I have chosen a photograph to illustrate the piece. The reflection seemed so apt, as if the buildings really were beneath the water.
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