It was half-familiar, as if I had seen it from the water
While passing in a vaporetto — number 8,
As I recall. Particularly the mortar:
That dirty, homely pink. Not a great
Palace, but good enough for Ruskin. Yes,
Perhaps I knew it on account of him — a plaque
High on the wall? Sour John I must bless
For his signal love of these crumbling stones, and for the mark
He left on another visitor: my delectable Proust.
To forget failure Marcel came to slake
His thirst for art; but instead, concretely, he produced
Those monumental tomes about a cake
And a paving flag. We too will remember,
I think, our breakfast at the Calcina, that pivotal November.
While passing in a vaporetto — number 8,
As I recall. Particularly the mortar:
That dirty, homely pink. Not a great
Palace, but good enough for Ruskin. Yes,
Perhaps I knew it on account of him — a plaque
High on the wall? Sour John I must bless
For his signal love of these crumbling stones, and for the mark
He left on another visitor: my delectable Proust.
To forget failure Marcel came to slake
His thirst for art; but instead, concretely, he produced
Those monumental tomes about a cake
And a paving flag. We too will remember,
I think, our breakfast at the Calcina, that pivotal November.
(1992)
