London Eye

London Eye from St. James Park, June 2010

Empires die slowly,
expiring the way proud old men
with medals age
long after the shooting
has stopped,
meticulously
observing each movement
of the realm's grand clock
so as to make the
looking back last
and teach them something
they desperately
want to know about themselves

Are they cowards
or brave men
or murderers
or guardians
of a sacred flame
that illuminates nothing
but is at least a fire
that burns their fingers
so they know they're alive

******

The London Eye
can be seen from St. James Park
and from Westminster Bridge, too

It moves twenty-six centimeters per second
with flawless corporate precision
above the city's lovely, dirty old river
and this royal throne of kings,
this earth of majesty,
laid out like a patient forgotten on a table

But what it will not show you
is the unrecorded movements
to be or not to be
and that is the question
kept under Queen's Guard in London Tower,
how this blessed plot will next become

Unpublished, 2010

Gio reads "London Eye" on YouTube