Lazarus at the Gate: After Tiepolo | Peter Steele

Luke 16.19-22

A stub of cabbage and a heel of bread

Would keep him on the wrong side of the grave

A few more shadowy days and nights. Instead,

By staircase, marble sphinx and architrave,

A couple of menials haul the brimming trays,

A couple of guests are hobbling in their haste

Towards the villa, where in purple laze

A consort and the arbiter of taste.

Down from the barbered trees, by now unable

To fend away his licking dogs, your man

Can’t bear to think again of the garnished table –

Of wine and olive, pear and ortolan.

Bring me, he prays, to the banquet of the dead,

And feed the heartless as I have been fed.

Peter Steele | The Gossip and The Wine