merchant house

rising up from
the crowded market place
a five story building
built of beams
filled with
mortar stucco laths

enter and find storerooms
piled high with oriental goods
powdered spices and carpets
wicker baskets
candles of a funny shape
blasphemous sculptures
masks and chopsticks
tea and tapestries

desks where the master's
clerks are forever busy
doing complicated calculations
money flowing in and
out every day

one story up
you'll find
rooms for the family
neither spacious
nor magnificent
but with comforts
and luxuries unknown
to most castles

higher up you'll
find empty space
quarters for
children
servants
apprentices
an illicit chapel

before the front door
swings
the ensign of the house
a winged snake
enter with caution


[Loosely based on a passage in Life on a Mediaeval Barony by W. S. Davis.]