Memory of Byzantium

This is a song
For the memory of Byzantium
For things we planned but never but never did
If we could end the wars
At last we might close the temple doors

She said, “Perhaps we’d be happy
To change it up and relocate east
There’s not much for the two of us here
And the winter lasts longer each year
Or so it seems”

This is a song
For the memory of Byzantium
For things we said but never but never meant
There’s Greek fire in the water
Without a change of wind there will be slaughter

I said, “Perhaps we’d be happy
In a place with a view of the sea
‘The Lord upon the Golden Horn
Is laughing in the sun’
So it seems to me”

This is a song
For the memory of Byzantium
For things we miss but never had
Of Theodosian walls
And the careless clap of canon balls

(The quote about the Golden Horn is from G. K. Chesterton’s poem Lepanto.)