Unlikely Tourist

"The Machines of Leonardo da Vinci"
reads the sign in the vestibule
(the church converted to a museum).
Inside, wooden models
of bridges, ladders, windmills,
catapults, a parachute,
other implements of war.
 In one corner,
a man stands
in front of Leonardo's
life-size flying contraption,
wood, leather, string.
Looking over it
he admires the handiwork.
Later I see him
in the Piazza San Marco.
The pigeons in the square
make circles around him,
some rest on his shoulders.
The people notice,
pointing out this man
to others.
The man begins to move away,
stopping briefly to help
a gondolier tie a knot,
the holes in his hands showing.
Quickening his pace,
he crosses wooden bridges,
feeling the roughness of each.
The tourists with their cameras
try and keep up.
Soon he is out of range
trying out his new wings
on the church steps.
And before long
he's high above the rooftops of Venice,
drifting farther and farther up
over the golden cupolas,
above the Piazza San Marco,
the people pointing
and he,
He, brash as Icarus,
trying for the Sun.

Adam Kuzma has been published in Harpweaver, published by Brock Univ., the poem, "Like Wine Poured Out" won the Can. Auth. Assoc. Prize for Poetry. He has also appeared in several Hamilton literary mag's including Kairos.

Email: Adam Kuzma

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