Sunday, April 22, 2007

For my feminist friend who swears Italy is the center of the Universe:


Once I was in Love in Italy

We walked five villages.

In Riomaggiore we ate ice cream sweetened
with fruit from a cactus.

In Manarola our bed was
a large yellow rose.

In Corniglia I said come here,
and kiss me like this.

In Vernazza we found a crumbling church
on a sea cliff. We thought of the future
though we would not last
the journey home.

In Monterosso al Mare, you picked a red fruit
from a cactus with yellow flowers.

How sweet.
How tender.
How swollen with seeds.

On the train back to Rome I tweezed prickles
from your lips and tongue.
You plucked the same from mine.

So hair-like
So soft
So nothing to taste.

How sharp they were,
how impossible to remove, the needles.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i recognized riomaggiore before i saw it was about italy. i'm soooo worldly. (roll your eyes here)
i think i ate pizza in vernazza.