Saturday, March 15, 2008

two old ladies

today from the bus in the rain
while pulling into the termini
i saw the two old ladies, older than most
who live on the corner by the train station

i walked over to the disheveled pair to learn of them
though they ask for nothing
pulling out a ten, it was i with the question
who handles the money?

both wore dresses, blankets and many sweaters
one took the bill, one stayed aloof
by showing an interest in their lives
the one who took the money began speaking

she said it was tougher now, life was rougher
twenty years they've been on that exposed corner
with their belongings in two shopping carts
when it's cold and rainy they sleep in the station

not to impose, i didn't ask much
are they too old and crazy to teach us anything?
what they say, what they know
did old greeks say 3000 years ago

Friday, March 14, 2008

brushing teeth, mine

i fell asleep brushing my teeth
thinking how my grandmother used to like
saturday tv with the midgets wrestling

Your mother's mother? she asked
"Yes," I said.
"That figures."

now what was that supposed to mean?
i gave her a sharp look, i did
you should have seen it

anyway i didn't really fall asleep
zoned out into brushing land
more like it

a mild trance state
perfectly normal
it happens, right?

Thursday, March 13, 2008

the information future

make a hole, duck and cover
things
are happening so fast
more than anyone can grasp
you can't keep up

try as you might
it's blurring out
beyond sight
at record breaking speed
much more than we need

keep out of the way
they've pulled out the stops
let it roar on, roll on
'til it drops, or is drained
the seams are all strained
it's a runaway

wish the best to the future
wish it the very best
it is humming ignited
and flying nearsighted
exponentially

the hurrier it gets, the faster it grows
the larger it gets, the faster it goes

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

dim & sons

physicists say eleven dimensions
are going on here at the same time

they certainly must be observant
i wonder what channel they're watching

now, with eleven dimensions all in this space,
i know why you can stand alone and sill feel
crowded in your kitchen

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

'52 chevy

years ago the termini
(that's the rail station in roma)
had a '52 chevy pickup truck on display in the lobby
it was surprising to see it there
you don't see american vehicles in italy

well the termini and the times have changed
but i was thinking about my '52 chevy pickup today

i'm not sure when i saw the one in rome
or when i had mine
both were a while ago
1990 or so

mine was sweet
some young woman sold it to me
it was her x-boyfriends, he left it at her place
i guess she was upset with him
she sold it for three hundred bucks

it needed about a hundred dollars worth of work
by cousin don, a real pro and old vehicle lover
made my truck tick like an old singer sewing machine

cousin don wasn't my cousin before i met him
i found him through an add in a newspaper
but he remained a dear cousin and kept my truck tuned
until the day he died

how very dear that old truck was
original everything
even had a san francisco giants sticker from the fifties
on the rear window
a white billiard cue ball on the floor gear shift

the interior i had redone in original leather style
it had a visor over the windshield
some old dents, not too many
i did a green and black two-tone paint job
with a brush and matt finish
it looked factory done and aged by time

how sweet, it ran with such a tick, tick, tick
and i rode the old classic
everywhere in and around san francisco
so many time we crossed the golden gate

alas, we moved away and i sold it
where has it gone
like watching my children who have grown
like seeing all turn into the past

we love life
endure it
do the best we can
and the big wheel keeps on turning, tick, tick, tick

once in a while
we look back and recall
still keeping our heads up
as we move on into the future

Monday, March 10, 2008

too many

i don't know what happened to sunday
it started
there was the outdoor market down the street
meri picked up some good vegetables
i slept

we had coos coos and artichokes that meri made
i had negative contribution

after lunch
we went out and it was cool, but nice in the sun
from campo dei fiori full of tourists
we took a 62 bus as far as san silvestro

some how we wandered into the galleria
named for the beloved actor alberto sordi
a great old building converted into a mall
a fifty foot high stained glass ceiling and beautiful rose marble arches and niches in the well-sculptured structure
built about a hundred fifty years ago
they don't do this quality now

we were going to have a coffee and little half sandwich called a tramezzino, but prices were too high
2.50 to sit down with coffee
2.40 for a tramezzino that are usually 1.30
that 2.50 euro is 3.85 in u.s. dollars
coffee used to cost fifty cents
when italy first went to the euro prices immediately doubled
they haven't slowed
weekly news stories bemoan excelerating food prices

out the side door at a pizza place we bought a slice each
meri noted that when we were first in roma eighteen years ago
the pizza was always made on sight
now it is shipped in and re-heated in a microwave
fast food has arrived
romans are noticeably heavier

around the corner was trevi fountain
we wound through the crushing crowd and i took Meri to the photo
exhibition that i saw last week at the Igovernment printing lab

outside was jammed. inside there was no one and four rooms of historic photos in this free exhibit
no advertising. no crowd.
photos of old Roma dated from 1845 to about 1870

we noted the differences from a hundred fifty years ago
then there were empty fields, now in that same area are city streets and apartment buildings
it has changed from few people to full of people

we have seen so much change in our lifetime
i first flew in a Ford Tri-motor prop plane before crowds
and before jets were the common airliner

a couple of years ago i was getting off a packed bus at chiesa nuova, a crazy italian guy who had been talking all along the way, got off at the same stop and said to me
"there's too many of us."
"what are you saying" i asked. i understood his words in italian, but wanted clarification about what he'd said
"people. i am talking about the earth's population. there are too many of us."
i nodded, said something in agreement and went on my way

about two months later Meri and I were in San Diego, California walking down a busy street. in the group coming our way was a crazy guy talking to everyone. just as he passed us he turned back and said directly to me, "there are too many of us."
it shocked me, but i kept walking. it was the same guy.
it took me about a second to remember the other time and when i turned back to him i said
"hey, you just told me that two weeks ago." but he was already gone, invisible in the crowd

Saturday, March 08, 2008

two dancers

two dancers
set up in front of Feltrinelli book store
when we were there

they had black and white outfits
one had stripes on her skirt, the other checks
a small sound system and taps on their shoes

their music began - it was anything goes
look at them tap, tap, tap, tap, shuffle, ball-change
the second song was put the blame on mame

this was at the bus stop across from largo argentina
some people paid attention
the girls had a routine and danced away

after a few more numbers
they took their collection basket and
music system and evaporated to across the street

enjoying it, taking what coins they earned
something to do dancers, helping us all
with their tap, tap, tap,tap, shuffle, ball-change

hear me

i’m at the age
where I begin to understand
why a man not primarily an author wrote so many books
there is always more to do

and have burnt my thumb enough
to know why church boys use
long brass stick-things to light deep candles
it pays to be careful

and i know why i’m not
like a seven year old
that pops up in the morning
and starts hopping and running around
kids can do that

i’ve done circles
and pop in the morning
so i get up sounding like someone eating
breakfast cereal out of a box

Friday, March 07, 2008

noise

nearly gone are creaking man-pulled carts

amid narrow stone alleys
the tired depths of old roma
nearly quiet
well after midnight
a woman's clicking heels on pavement stones
tap sharp
rhythmic echoing clicks
small, light hammers on an anvil
like voices from those passing on the street
that scale the walls to windows above
and to the roof tops

then, early
in silent dawn
a small delivery truck
the size of a golf cart
starts its engine

roars, barks and sparks
loud without a muffler
limping from a storage area
under the arch, heading the other way
toward the outdoor market in piazza campo dei fiori

here, thirty yards from the arch
the sound like a chainsaw gone mad rattles our windows
people who live the way he passes
those people
those poor sleep interrupted people
i pity every market day
for roma has no ordinance
against noise

Thursday, March 06, 2008

some country mile

on a rolling back road slowdown
not quite lost
we paused our car just off to the side
the air was still and nearly warm
we sat looking, talking a while
"let's get out and walk,"
she said and i nodded

enjoying the quiet woods on foot
once by a pattering stream
where sun glinted on
the tapestry of life
this dramatic natural scene

i thought
to stroll with her is always new
now and then we'd hold hands
it seemed we'd gone quite far
you are my everything,
dear partner, all the things you are

interrupting my reverie
calling me back from afar
tenderly she whimpered into my ear
"honey, where'd you park the car?

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

to divulge sad facts

meri thinks i have obsessive compulsive behavior
because i take the milk off the stove before it boils

we drink italian coffee and our small apparatus makes the equivalent of two half-cups at a time
at first i used cold milk, but then meri started heating it
but we have to watch it
milk practically explodes when it boils

now i guard against that and attempt to take the milk off the stove early. meri thinks i remove it too quickly.

"i am being prudent," i explain.

"you're like jack lalanne.".

"why jack lalanne?" i asked.

"because he ties his feet to the side of the pool and does
and hour of swimming the breaststroke - everyday," she said.

i see

"it boiled one time and i wanted to prevent it from happening again."

"that's obsessive compulsive behavior!" she declared.

i call it the difference between boys and girls.
tea anyone?

our apartment

one apartment over
one floor up
across our tiny street
is a million dollar apartment
i can practically see in the window

only fifty feet from me and happiness

we have friends in the states who
proudly proclaimed they have a home that was never previously lived in
i bet while they built it the workers used to pee in the corner

our lousy apartment on a former worst street in roma
is over five hundred years old
back then they used to throw crap out the window
(that is a euphemism of course, i don't know what they threw, but they didn't have indoor plumbing, and the romans aren't known for their consideration)

michaelangelo, cellini and bernini could have been here in our building
and if they were, they were probably drunk
this is a former spot for gambling, drinking and a whorehouse
forty years ago even the police wouldn't walk down this street

a hundred paces away is campo dei fiori, the former execution ground
giordorno bruno was burnt at the stake by the church there
because he contradicted the church when he said the earth was not the center of our universe
that bastard

hey, sun goes up, sun goes down
and our crappy, dark, tiny apartment is still here
now on million euro row.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

prospero

"hello, hello, where are you from?"
he calls to the tourists to bring them closer
in english, french or german
a smattering of languages

near the center of campo dei fiori
by the statue of bruno
at times in the sun
sometime in shade
a simple long table
covered with a cloth
is set with demo vegetables for cutting into curly shapes and spires

prospero he is called
who sells small plastic novelty, yet practical cutters for vegetables
does it from a chair at his table
not from behind the table
but outside, alongside his audience

the jovial old roman
with a look of alert kindness about him
lived thirty years in the ghetto
always did laborer work
now for seven years he has been here

as i pass near i hear tourists chuckle when he blows bubbles
and puts on his entertaining presentation for them
making them laugh
he laughs with them
and enjoys the work
clean and simple
this is retirement done well

Monday, March 03, 2008

a way

the hard part is the thing
between winter and spring
when i need to check twice
to see which coat to bring

the heavy one has a hood
and the day i removed it i started alternating
my light jacket with the hood-less heavy one
depending on how cold it is

depending on the weather
i change all my stuff from one jacket to the chosen other
bam-slam two-fisted organization is the key!
okay, so i kinda got the organization idea from meri
but then, hey, i figured it out my way!

everything gets a certain pocket
so i know where to reach for it
i get my money, coins in one pocket and folded money
i bring my phone - hopefully charged, a pen
my keys and any notes, my id, just the essentials
my bus ticket, cigarettes and lighter
then bam

out the door
on my way
i forgot my keys
what can i say

what do you mean no keys?
i'm locked out!

i was just going to the corner to get a loaf of bread
takes about a minute
meri will be coming out in three to six hours maybe
and i'm locked all the way, way out

this is worse than a couple of months ago
when i came home and didn't have my keys
and heard a voice yelling my name
it was my friend with a shop down the street

i had stopped and sat on the coach and talked a while
my keys fell out of my pocket and she saw them before i reached my locked door

this time i forgot my phone cause i just was going to the corner
meri was home on the third floor in the back room
the door buzzer for the building is broken
but i got the loaf of bread

there was no rock to throw at the window
i tried that once when i was a kid
and broke a neighbors second-story kitchen window
with a mudball that landed in my neighbor's grandmother's pie

thank god my current neighbor on the first floor looked out
saw me and let me in

this time, no problem
i got in
so when all seems lost
don't give in and don't toss rocks

Sunday, March 02, 2008

button fix

you talk about a heart ache
when all we do is wake up
to find another thing that doesn't work
another nail in the board of pain
something simple, to be sure
god, i hope it doesn't rain

we can't heat the water
the indicator won't light
despite pushing repeatedly
results were out of sight

the water heater button's broken
of that there's no doubt
finally, the fourth store i checked had another
we're half way to being fixed

i got a card of an electrician from the electrical store
cause we seemed to have an excess of wires
this guys has been working at the italian senate building for twelve years so he must be good
or somebody's cousin
he said he'll show up in three hours
we'll just patiently wait
hot water will be ours

practically easy
nothing is lost
we'll wait and see
how much it will cost

all we need is resolution
to keep to the road until the end
it just seems harder when your older
things take longer to mend

three hours pass and i call the guy again
his phone isn't on, but he calls back in a few minutes
he delays his arrival time and add two more hours to his estimate
so i sit down and wonder and wait, will we really have hot water

he calls and is near, i give final directions and he comes
i'm out on the street when this guy is walking down
i see him and he sees me, there is something about
the way were both looking around that we identify each other

this guy looks like a messy carpet stuffer with a coat on
i don't know what carpet stuffers look like either
but marcello fits the description
and he talks romano which is a street slang, and that gets me worried
who did i hire to do the work here in our home?

i bring him in, marcello asks my name
two minutes later when we're talking he calls me jack
and this is a big leap, cause most italians either can't say my name
or can't remember it

there are problems and he works around them
we talk and get along well
a second switch has to be changed and he does it
he improvises and easily makes things better

what a pleasant adventure to meet a new guy who is sympathetic, normal, and competent.

everything is neat
when i asked the price he said twenty. i gave him thirty and we both are satisfied.
i made a friend and so did he

Saturday, March 01, 2008

autogrill

as you drive along the autostrada
ahead is a covered bridge that spans the highway
with a parking area on the right and on the left
look! it's not a bridge
it's auto grill
everyone is saved

half way to anywhere in forty countries
you'll find the multinational food and retail conglomerate
at airports and on highways
serves food to drivers
has clean restrooms

and if you go when it is not meal time in italy
it will be nearly empty
at meal time it will be packed

you pull off and park
go up two floors by stairs or an elevator
and the restaurant and store part spans the highway
nice view

want a postcard, chocolate or a small sandwich, t-shirt and coffee
you've got it
(cd's and perfume also available)

Friday, February 29, 2008

fontana di trevi

i came out of the bank and walked left
down the street, just behind trevi fountain
pointing to the closed doors on the opposite side when i
asked a shop keeper why the engraving museum isn't open
he shrugged and said it's one block over

at the fountain i walked around the front
in 19 b.c. romans built the acqueduct
that brings water from the hills 8 miles out of roma
it actually travels 14 miles before it gets here
even water gets the run-around

in 1953 roman holiday with audrey hepburn and cary grant
brought the fountain to our attention

i had walked nearly all the way around before i looked at the fountain
after a hundred times in that square i didn't have to look right away
watching where i was going through the many tourists
kept me occupied

the middle point around i was at the church
the point of the three roads intersecting
tre vie, three roads, trevi

years ago i sat on those church steps opposite the fountain
drawing it for an hour or two
passing tour groups woke me to realize
more buses than i could recall
had entered the piazza one at a time
unloaded and reloaded and left

i looked toward the waters again
no wonder they all come
it's such a pretty fountain

Thursday, February 28, 2008

john and bill

we went to the post office at san silvestro
to pay the fine we got yesterday
for not paying the exit toll at the autostrada,
because the machine was broken

the post office was like a fifteenth century
first class lounge with fifty service windows
we paid the one euro fine instead of
waiting for them to increase the fine
and repossess everything we own,
i don't know about jail time

then we walked next door
to the church san silvestro in capite
meri took a picture of the head of john the baptist

about five places around the world
claim to have his head,
the place i doubt is
disneyworld in orlando - come on!

then we walked around the corner
to the cafe greco at the foot of the spanish steps
and saw a photo of buffalo bill cody
taken when he was there in 1903

here it is one hundred five years later
not only is the bar still there
but the furniture is the same
point that out to your wife the next time
she wants to do some redecorating at home

just your average day in the dis-average roma

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

bus drivers in roma

wwhat’s the big hurry with the bus drivers?
did mommy or daddy chase them with a bus?

some of them can drive ok but don’t stop well
bad, let’s say the truth - they stop like hell

the passengers get jerked all around.
those standing spin like pole dancers

did they really pass a driving test?
who gave it to them, their girlfriend?

what's the bus man's rush all about anyway?
they have to work their shift, don't they?

if it was the number of circuits they had to make
they’d get someone to lie for them about how many

then they'd knock off early
which could be best for all

some drive well, this i must admit, and some
are kind and considerate to their passengers

there are exceptions to every rule
still others curse and drive and drool

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

obelisks

i knew what obelisks were all of my life
but until i walked in the shadow of one
and saw the intricate inscriptions that i cannot read
did i feel their strength and splender

there are 30 in the world, all from egypt
13 in roma, in egypt only seven, four standing
the ones in london and new york
used to be in roma

san giovanni's in roma
is the tallest in the world, 105 feet,
originally 140 feet
and the oldest - 15 century b.c.

a true obelisk is made from one piece of stone
so they say
washington monument is 555 feet tall
many pieces, but obelisk enough for me

in roma obelisks are impossible to avoid
easy to glance at from afar
worth seeking out
magnificent to examine