Which Hands in my Pocket?

Zu jeder Zeit
At any time,
said the dream within a dream,
hiding the clock's hands
in the pocket

Eric Panigl
"Triest Wien Marienbad"
The names of those cities -
once upon a time all part of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire -
writ there as a reminder of Vergänglichkeit -
evanescence - or of permanence?
Vienna, thy streetcar may be named
"Transience", but you are sending
her around the city in a circle
with no end station!

Well, every now and then,
the streetcar stops long enough
to let you hop off and
drop off your fineries
at the cleaners

Punsch Karitativ
Drinking for Charity
Michaelerplatz
Well, that was during Christmas season,
lifting mugs of mulled wine
for a good cause,
building good will
for posterieternity

Dolce e Gabbana
Offering sweet temptations
in their shop window:
Alas, only sweet dreams,
faux ones, their permanence untroubled
by the ravages of time!

Walking under these streetlights
always puts me in a meditative mood:

The lights illuminate
the façade of the Jewish Synagogue,
designed in the 1820s by one of the most
famous architects of his time, Joseph Kornhäusl.

On the other side of the lane, Seitenstettengasse,
the Ruprechtskirche, its parish reaching back
almost 1,300 years, to 740 AD.

Under Emperor Claudius -
less than half a century into the Christian era -
the area around these two historic buildings
was part of the Roman military settlement Vindobona.

Is it any wonder
one feels as if walking
on hallowed ground,
especially at twilight when
every shadow seems to cast forth
a vision of the past?

"Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?" *

*

For more information about the history
of the Jewish Synagogue at Seitenstettengasse,
Saint Ruprecht's Church and Vindobona,
the Roman military base and town in Pannonia Superior,
click on the respective names.

*) Quoted from the poem
"A Dream Within A Dream"
by Edgar Allan Poe


Images and own Text © by Merisi 2012
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