On Old Vienna Poem by Vassilis Christakis

A breath of cold clean air
A candy-flavored breeze
And an intrepid fiaker
Such is Vienna's winter style
Dressed as a snow-clad slacker

A city to reign over a land
Of Jews, and Slavs, and Magyars,
Of upstart rich and high-born poor
And Danube's splendid gutter

Of fiery art and classic tunes
Of lace and lice alike
Much like Paris and Berlin
With fun and song and laughter

But no French pride
No German wrath
No Balkan backward stagger
Honored to fight the Tsar in elegant blue tunics
Sounding Radetzky's march under Franz Joseph's banner!