Once a Summer Evening

Grey still water reflects stone shopfronts

window shutters open

sailors working,

all witnessing the sky metamorphosise

into a brilliance of after-storm blue tinged with a blush,

bashful almost,

at the far edges of the horizon 

where the shrouded sun begins its lulling rest 

in late-day summer,

sealing pulsing air and wind strokes

as perennial.

‘View of the Giudecca with the Zattere’ by Francesco Guardi