David Keig - At Byzantium

Were you first there in Byzantium when Constantine was king?
Did you walk along the Bosphorus or the Golden Horn in spring?
Did you fight the Turkish armies when your empire was thread bare?
Did you find solitide in Ephes amongst the ruins there?
Did you paint Christ Pantocrator's in your monastery domes?
Did you regret the loss of empire and look longingly to Rome?
Did you just look on quietly when the city's walls were breached?
Did you fight well in the battle or rely on empty speech?
Did you then curse Byzantium for all those many things
That Byzantium still clung to just to glorify its kings?
For decay set in some time before the citadel was stormed
And the downfall of Byzantium lay in its crown of thorns
For Jesus and Byzantium were not a marriage made
Of love but of convenience, so its soul could not be saved.

David Keig

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/at-byzantium/