Ciao, Venezia

1,583 yesterdays
have gone
since first I came,
a late arrival.
The best of the party
was over, the glory
long ago turned
to dust; but your
peerless beauty
still pierces my heart
with an exquisite pain.

Now
I must go.
Love and duty call,
and the greatest work of my life
yet to be done
on other shores
far from your vanishing
splendor.

But you have filled my soul,
transformed me,
and a part of you remains,
here,
in my foolish, vagrant heart,
a tune that lingers
on my lips, ever waiting
to be sung.

O, my Venezia,
queen of the seas,
wreathed with seaweed
trimmed with pearls,
I will love you from afar
as I have loved you near.


Larry Mellman
25.III.2009
Venezia