Snapshots
The panel of the Ottoman military tent
is blazoned with a ring of crescent moons
and a six-pointed star.
It is roughly patched and battle weary.
It hangs limply on the south wall
overseeing flanked memories in oil:
Liberi’s Battle of the Dardanelles
Belloti’s Battle of Albania
Aliense’s Conquest of Tyre
Peranda’s Victory at Jaffa.
It faces the throne of Saint Peter –
the stone chair with Koran inscriptions
and arabesque stellar motifs.
*
Between the protagonists
are found the antique artefacts:
navigational instruments used in sailing
travel journals of merchants
11th century Islamic glassware
and several ancient carpets.
*
On a canvas a boy leads a monkey
on a long string.
*
And a few steps away
is Byron’s misnamed Ponte dei Sospiri.
*
Pigeons avoid the dense needle defences
of the window ledges
and settle for a night in the beams
*
In the Doge’s quadrangle the tall figures
of Mars and Neptune stand together
on the wide steps
leading up to the Senate.
• As well as being a regular contributor to IS&T, over the past few weeks Gwilym Williams has been entertaining us in the comments column with a chronicle of what happened when he submitted a spoof poem to an equally bogus US poetry competition.