"I Don’t Have a Gondola or An Oar or Money to Pay a Gondolier" by Matthew Isaac Sobin

So I’ve been wandering sodden streets, crossing narrow bridges. It shouldn't be any great surprise that I’m lost in Venice. It’s the easiest city to get lost in. There are landmarks, sure, like the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari and the Canal Grande. But they don’t direct you from one to the other, much less back to your hotel or country of origin. I’ve asked in Italian if there are any maps but was laughed at by the locals. When they stop laughing, they admit they can’t remember another time when it rained so long. Now I’m hoping a gondolier takes pity and ferries me back across the Atlantic. I’ll pay them in stories collected while lost in a sinking city. We’ll set course for the Statue of Liberty. It’ll be a straight shot.

Matthew Isaac Sobin's first book was the novella, The Last Machine in the Solar System. His poems are in or forthcoming from South Florida Poetry Journal, Midway Journal, Orange Blossom Review, Ghost City Review, and MAYDAY Magazine. You may find him selling books at Books on B in Hayward, California.