If you feel great

Wandering within the

Stream of masses

Then amble down the

Capital’s main shopping

Streets.

You will have a sense of

Holiday with all the visitors

Perhaps even think you

Arrived in a different city

Listening to many different

Languages

And as most of the local folk

Have left for their holidays

At the Adriatic Sea

Or will be sun-tanning at their

Summer retreats

The city belongs now to the

Guests.

Even if the capital glows in

Heat

Radiating off the cobbled

Stone

The light surfaces of flagstone

Covered squares and pedestrian

Malls.

People gather at water points

But one misses generously

Spraying fountains

Yet efforts are under way

To restructure and landscape

Rotenturmstrasse

The continuation of the great

Kärntnerstrasse

Into a pedestrian mall

Where fountains will feature.

Meanwhile tourist masses

Still flood the city

In spite of construction work

The dust and heat.

The relief: Italian ice cream

ICE.ECI zoltanzelan.  ZJG-POetry’19.