Why Venice Is Sinking

I look at the sky over Venice.
Nothing’s changed for the last
seven billion years. God’s up there. He
created the universe and then
the seven billion worlds in it
and in every world innumerable nations,
a babel of tongues, but only one Venice.

He made each nation different, whispering: ‘Now
get acquainted.’ He gave them foreign language
to get better acquainted with, making them all,
by this means, richer and better. He made
Venice the way he did birds and fish, just like that, so
people and nations would come to believe in him,
being, of course, thunderstruck by what he could do.

I look at the sky over Venice. Up there and everywhere –
is God. The only one. He created the universe,
seven billion worlds in the universe, and every world
filled with people and languages, to which he added
a single Venice. An on one world, upon a landmass known
as Europe, among the tribe of the southern Slavs, he placed
a small addenda. This is the border. Bosnia. Bos-
nia, Bosnia. And here the Eastern cross
and the Western cross, formed of one cross, met
and went to war. But the Bosnians, being meek,
took a third faith and hewed to the unique God,
the only One, neither begotten, nor himself begetter,
Lord of the world, the Master of the Judgment Day.

I look at the sky over Venice. Worldly rulers
have decided that Bosnians should be – nowhere.
Venice is sinking. Europe is sinking. The cradle is sinking.
Roses in Murano glass vases are sinking. Murano
is sinking. Hotel rooms are sinking and
the Dead Poets Society is sinking. Why doesn’t the world need
Bosnians? Amongst colors – one colour less?
Amongst scents – one scent less? Why doesn’t the world need
Venice? Amongst wonders – one wonder less?

I look at the sky over this earthly world.
In a long arc, a single star is breaking up, right down
through the bottomless universe, falling, it seems,
right into the Grand Canal. This ordinary world, among
seven billion celestial worlds, is about to become poorer
by a whole people. Its worldly rulers appear to have
so decided. In the universe, therefore, a single falling star.
And Venice is sinking. The universe will be poorer
by a whole world. That is the will of the Lord of the worlds,
the will of the Master of Judgment Day.