Thoughts on the Tower in Pisa

By David Niall Wilson

They built a thousand churches
With straight columns,
Paintings hung just so
And mosaic masterpieces with
Intricately placed stone bits
That interlocked & formed designs,
Transcendent in their beauty,
Timeless in their perfection.
They built another tower.
It began to sink before half done,
The Earth refusing to support it,
Refusing to be molded to the dreams
Of yet another man.
They stopped. They calculated.
Then, one day, they continued.
They did not straighten the walls.
They did not reinforce the Foundations.
They built; it sank; They built some more,
Stubbornly refusing defeat.
Bent, but not broken,
Leaning down, as if to whisper secrets
Long forgotten, or to kiss the Earth,
It stands. Monument
To mule-headed human will-power,
More famous for its imperfections
Than for its classic lines,
It draws the curious like flies.
It calls out to the dreamers.
They sit, and they watch,
Marveling at the wonder of its existence,
Imagining they will be the ones
To watch it fall.