at the fair

Everything is
for sale
carts and horses
tapestries and silver
wonderful silks
  from Syria
Saracen carpets
  woven in Persia
Eastern dyestuffs
  red from Damascus
  indigo from Jerusalem
beautiful glass vessels
  made in Venice
new paper
  for the monks
spices aplenty
  pepper
  cinnamon
  clove
solid linseys
mellow wines

mix this
with fine
entertainments
trick dogs
performing bears
a caged lion
male and female
  rope dancers
acrobats
story tellers
professors of
  white magic
jongleurs
  sawing their viols
  reciting romances
  and merry fables
swarms
  of brazen women
  an evil kind
drunks aplenty.

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

For the fair

Here's what was needed
for the fair

induce the barons
of the region
to treat visitors
of the fair
reasonably
give them
protection

establish
strict regulations
to secure
for every trader
fair play

commision sergeants
to patrol the grounds

set up
a competent
provost's court
right among the tents

then entice
many people
to come visit
from faraway.

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

the great festival

every August
in a field
by the river
just south of town

many things
for sale
some so unusual
you'll never see them
in any city shop
or market place

long files of travelers
on beast
and on foot

innumerable tents
flaunting pennons

bards and troubodours
here to entertain
and earn extra money

soberly clad
merchants
with attendants
lead
sumpter mules
laden with goods

flocking customers
old and young
rich and poor
smart and stupid
all vigorously chaffering
over money
and satisfying previously
unknown needs.

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