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The Promises Time Always Breaks

David J. Thompson

I guess I don’t need to tell you about it,
we’ve all suffered through it before.
You know what I’m talking about -
the we’re both so lonely let’s try it again
desperate rendez-vous in Venice,
that city Thomas Mann got right
one hundred years ago. You always stay,
for old times’ sake, at the Hotel Daniela
even though you think it’s lost its charm
and that old concierge who knew your name
died years ago. That first arrival afternoon
of wine and foreplay, you both know immediately
it’s not going to work, that magic died years ago,
probably for good reason. But for now, you must pretend
to enjoy feeding all those shitty pigeons in the drizzle
of St Mark’s Square, or trading tired insights
into Peggy Guggenheim’s art collection
that bores the hell out of you every time
you’re there. Throw in, of course, the de rigeur
one- too- many martinis at Harry’s Bar
where your only hope is to see George Clooney
and his wife, so you have something to talk about.
Follow that with a gondola ride of halfhearted embrace
for a long night of tepid sex followed by tears
of whispered regret. Thank God morning gets there
with only time for coffee and a quick goodbye;
this time without the promises time always breaks.
Now that you can breathe again and time to kill
before your own water taxi trip to the airport,
you go out for a walk and, damnit, why is it
every time you stop on The Bridge of Sighs
the church bells start to ring and the mist turns to rain?

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