It was the Gaudi chair outside the shop

That reeled me in,

A striking piece of work

I didn’t need to sit in it

To know its curving arms would not embrace,

Though they might grant my own

A momentary rest

I left the sunlight and canal

To venture in and brave a monstrous gloom of

Old meticulously crafted artefacts and oversized

Facsimiles of ships that had the tang of dust

Instead of salt

No doubt a cordial avaricious mannequin

Would tell me that its price was

Far beyond the reach of wayfarers like me,

But I was used to bargaining for sport

The apparition that emerged, however,

Turned me mute:

I took a backward step 

Into an unseen prow and blushed,

Not from desire, as she smiled

When I regained my tongue

I tried to say, in not so many words

Before I hastened out, that certain beauties

Were at best beheld, not clinched

And as I flew away along the labyrinth

I swore she knew that if I lingered any longer

I would prove myself a liar