The Very One(For Janice) Poem by Dónall Dempsey

Ah... Venice!

Not above stealing
a saint or two

when considered necessary
or seen as politically expedent.

So, St. Mark
finds himself smuggled

past Muslim customs
snuggled up in a casket of pork.

France's St. Roch
is nicked...yes but...

purely for medicinal purposes
...to ward off plague.

But St. Mark's
(shhhh...don't panic the pigeons
in the Square)

really takes the biscuit

containing as it does

one of the very knives
used to cut bread

at the Last Supper.

Yep. One of the very ones!

Not to mention
a finger of Mary Magdalene.

Yeah...one of her very own ten.
Now...she's not using them!

The stone upon
which John(the Babtist)

was beheaded.

Yes...the very one!

Yet only one
of the four authenticated

skulls of the great man!

And one(sadly only one)
of the numerous arms

of St. George
perhaps the very one

with which he slew the daragon.

But then on the island
of Murano

they have(have they not)
the bones of the dragon

slain by St. Donato.

Ah...Venice
my Venice!

Full of sunshine
& laughter!