Saudade, by Tristan Franz

Piazza San Marco, by Giovanni Antonio Canaletto (Italy). 1720s.

Saudade

I want to open my heart
wide as a Venetian plaza
let living air weave through
the stony arches of my foundation
caress the columns of consciousness

I want to feel a mountain
behind me in the distance, know
that each breath is an echo
that there is blue behind the blue
that the tattered flags wave without wind

I want to sit here all day and feel
the shadow of the steeple inflate and retreat
over the warm cobblestone, unmasking
silent centuries within me

I want to feel seventeenth century oblivion, know
nothing but sky and depth and Italian symmetry
I want to remember that passion blurs
the boundaries of time like the clouds above
into the mess of matter in our desperate
beating chests

Tristan Franz

Tristan Franz is a teacher, traveler and writer from Brooklyn, NY. His poetry has appeared in several small online literary magazines, which is good, because he probably couldn't handle being famous.