Waters rise, drowning the square
St. Mark’s afloat, a vessel in danger of floundering
Its clock ringing out a call of distress
Yet, still, a mundane fact of life
Simply marking time
Grandeur muted by futility
Holiness sucked dry by fear as the square is inundated
The majestic lion, a cat not fond of a soggy swim
Around what was the teeming square
Tables and chairs are stacked inside
Robbed of conversation and laughter
Politics and romance
Floating fowl now rule
Where once doves skipped and swooped and
Stole scraps of baguettes and
Terrorized or delighted children by
Chasing or being chased
Behind the square
Demarcation of city and canal slowly dissolves
Masks hanging in shop windows
Display sorrow and hope in the painted frowns or smiles
The eye holes of the sorrowful drop imagined tears
Adding flow to the deluge of fear
The eyes of the hopeful behold St. Mark’s and dream of
Canals agleam, doves above, awaiting permission to land
Ethicist, online education entrepreneur, and pastor Russell Willis emerged as a poet in 2019. Russell grew up in and around Texas, was vocationally scattered throughout the Southwest and Great Plains for many years, and is now settled in Vermont with his wife, Dawn.