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Gaudi at the Punta della Godana

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