Marco Polo

It was still dark. It was Wednesday when Marco Polo came home
6 am in the fall, a few centuries later.



I

In Ponte Rialto dock which was not recognized by him anymore : The first gull.
In the low wall of the bridge
he could not read again some old letters
which interrupted the fog along the canal.

He only saw a female Vietnamese climbing the dirty stone staircase.

And Marco Polo did not know for sure whether she was singing
at the sound of many water taxis.
Was she happy?

Or she just wanted to be with a black who had been standing under a light pole
in front of the pizza shop, while the wing taping the drizzle.

"Where do you come from?," the wanderer from Venezia asked.

"Not from afar," the woman replied,
"Not from afar," said the black man.

And the first gull was flying.

He never knew this morning: the first morning which did not want him to go.



II

The smell of coffee in the cup
before the cafeteria opened its doors,
the smell of cigar on a chair
still not prepared:
homelessness in this city
would never start the day.



III

Two hours he tried to find signs of pomegranate
ever wrought on the end of the wall
narrow alleys.

But Venezia, in the year 2013 AD,
no longer looked at him.



IV

In the Plaza San Marco, of the Basilica wall
a disembodied angel found removable Abaya.

"Do you see?
Someone has found someone else and running naked toward heaven"

No one answered.
Only Marco Polo who wanted to answer.
But from the cafe foyer
The orchestra played La Cumparsita

and white chairs dancing
invisible, far into the night

When the rain came later as accidental,
an old tourist said, "I'll buy Japanese hat sold on the shelves,
I would put it to the head of a missing child from his mother."



V

By midnight, the traders of Bengal
still throwing
luminous objects
to the bell tower. "Tonight is not finished", they said,
"The night is not finished."

Marco Polo understood
He remembered fireflies.



VI

Light was hiding at a distance of 3 kilometers from the sea
And in the sea there were other strange dark.

"I must be a mermaid, Rango. I have no fear of depths
and a great fear of shallow living. "- Anaïs Nin



VII

The next day was Sunday. In the Basilica room, the monks asked,"What would you regard as a sin?"
Marco Polo replied, "Faith in a hurry".
"I do not understand."
Marco Polo said, "I have witnessed the perfect city. The walls are carved with excesses and war, where god does not cry."



VIII

In narrow hotel Firenze
Marco Polo dreaming about the low wind
Orange Jessamine fragrance

He woke up.
He was hungry,
He did not know.
He missed
He did not know.

He just knew something was missing from his quilt:
female elephant ivory color, the smell of sperm,
and seven broken biscuits
ever scattered
on the table.



IX

At lunch hour
of the ventilation room
he heard the Habsi immigrants were singing,

I want to bring the rain from the gods foot,
I want to bring the coolness before noon tomorrow,
I will remove the boat from dry.

In between prayer and the singing
creaking of the oars gondola broke his silence.



X

A month later.
In Monday's
hardened old season
Marco Polo opened the door.

The weather was still dark.
At 6 am.
The Big Dipper would soon leave.

"My Lord, my Lord,
I do not want to go."
He was on his knees.

He was on his knees but he saw the sea was coming
with the dead face.
***


[CZ-lacalifusa 022014]