The real mosaic - Istanbul, Turkey

 








Photo of olives at an Istanbul market, by Fabio Pulito

Boats like splinters thrust into the Golden Horn,

the ripples of the Bosphorus clotted by an optical rennet:

it's not a still frame or a digital shot,

but a painted landscape by a visionary vagrant.

Posing like a bantering, whimsical model,
the city looks at history that hurries, tugs and raves.

Mosques and Churches squeeze buildings and bazaars,

the pressure pushes up bell-towers and minarets.

The real mosaic is not stuck to the naves,

it's tiles of history, customs and faces.

But the complicated structure of stone and colors

is simplified from a terrace,

with black olives and tea.

Istanbul, autumn 2009