you see her
in the distance
walls like curtains
enclose her privately
yet unabashed
tall towers
gabled roofs
spires
peak out of her
enticing you
down the hill you go
past taverns and inns
and into the great gate
pushing your way
through with other
vagabonds
knights
faraway travelers
rickety carts
sumpter bests
all across
the drawbridge
past burly whiskered
guards
now you enter
narrow streets
the bustle and vastness
of great multitudes
of people
donkeys
chickens
goats
scavenger pigs
and rats
piling in on
one another
noises and smells
overwhelm you
horse shit and cinnamon
garlic and yesterday's rot
cooking meat and pig sweat
houses wedged
against one another
towering up over you
each floor leaning
over the other
blocking out
the light
the rain
the air
a woman above you
throws out her waste
to greet you
a pig brushes
past you to
retrieve it
move left
move right
forward backward
bump you go
against yet another
hot sweating human
body
merchants line
the street
as if they own it
shouting and shouting
above the din
of blacksmiths hammering
animals wining
people conversing
a cacophonic roar
push your way through
and look
what have we here
a wool merchant
selling bad cloth
his wares now on display
at the city square
each one being set afire
amidst great billows of smoke
the seller
there he is
near by
pilloried and abused
be careful
less next
you'll be
welcome to
the city.
[Loosely based on a passage in Life on a Mediaeval Barony
by W. S. Davis.]
