spectacular trash

very colorful, looks great
that's why they pass it out or mail it
you don't lack a pack, do you?
i have extra

what's the use
i'm cleaning up the scraps
the museo di roma in trastevere
printed well, nice pictures
two brochures on quality paper
my expired bus pass
a restaurant receipt
another thing from who knows where
on and on, taking up space

trees are cut and turned to mush
so we can rush this stuff home
put a happy face sticker on it
and throw it away
have a nice day

double up

a break in tradition from
the occasional chinese food luncheon
this sunday we went to bufetto due
meri had a salad
i ordered the giant house pizza

thirty seconds after my pizza arived
i was cutting it when it did
an involuntary triple axle grand slam
inverted one hundred eighty degrees
and smashed itself face down into my lap

after lunch we walked to the stone benches
in front of palazzo farnese and sat a few minutes
i was examining the pizza stains on my pants
when a bird flew over and shit on my hands
both of them

how was your sunday?

nico's day

my friend nico is ninety-five today
if i see him i'll greet him

this guy is full of love for the world
and energy

the bridge - ponte

the weather is fine
no jacket needed
just shoulder pads
what a crunch

so friday was rome's birthday
i asked a roman why saturday was packed
it's the ponte, the bridge
you don't just have a day
you have a season

they always need a day or more
on either side of a holiday
to get into it
and to recover

like a dream

it must have been our age
because it was as if the radio had just been invented
we knew the tunes and they had our number
how well i remember the hits of '58

fifty years ago i was thirteen
the edsel, the hula hoop and BOAC
began the first transoceanic service
we looked both ways before crossing

we had our heads on properly
were looking at life right straight ahead
mom had to keep telling me
not to slam the screen door

i feel like you

i feel like you
that doesn't mean that i feel as if i like you
it means i feel about as you feel
but not completely
i don't wake up groping for the keys to your car
in my pocket or anything
i don't feel like that
now i'm not sure what i mean
or how i feel about it
so forget it
how do you feel about that?

listen, some of the stuff i write is crap
i know that, that's what writers are good at
the point is
it's not like i'm hiding it
i put it out with a purpose
two more, juliano. yeah, the red.

like you, i can recognize a good poem
and wonder how many did emily dickenson or robert frost leave buried in a drawer
sarah teasdale, i like her work also
geeze, i mention a couple of poets and feel like i've got to keep naming them

what i want to say is that
everyone has a different voice
every poet makes that choice
and when words work hot it's a kind of magic
when not - more like deforestation - nearly tragic

we'd learn if we could read
the partial poems the poets put aside
examine what was rejected
those things the great ones let slide
most often go undetected

so now this one is lying there like road kill
so enjoy it like sneaking through someone's refrigerator

ok start here

meditation is a discipline
who needs all this laughter
and funny stuff
just give me some boredom
and a book to read

i am old cause i don't get fashion,
style, mode, loud music
mr. humblegger, your table is ready
who cares

lincoln speak

i had a friend, jordan, whose grandfather was a slave
he told me that when his grandfather was a boy
in the south people gathered on a hill somewhere
to hear abraham lincoln speak
the grandfather was blind since birth, and an old man
when he told jordan
how he heard lincoln's sharp voice, high-pitched, clear like a trumpet over the crowd
i can let those words set
and ring in your head
like lincoln's must have done
to that boy who knew he was hearing the president

poetini

sure i keep it short
you have a life, right?
it's nice you take a look
but i'm not going to keep you

there - a couple of lines
you read it
fine, like that, okay, forget it
and we're both out'a here

birthday

"eeeeeeeyeow" screached a low swooping gull
over trajan's market by the forum
crowds were downtown last night
roma is celebrating birthday number 2761
how about that? two thousand seven hundred sixty-one

an old cat was walking around the ruins looking harmless
but the seagull thought otherwise and kept squawking
the feline eventually got the hint and departed
we were street level above the ruins, looking down on them

the official roma birthday day day is 21 april
nothing happened then, it was just selected as the day
meanwhile festivities will go on until 9 may

that's like roma, no quick birthday
people are out there now, concerts are going on
and that tells you a lot about how this city operates

in brief, like everything,
they make it up for the occasion
and do whatever they want

volume

the settings in roma
for speakers in airports
in buses, in buildings, outside
anywhere announcements are made
are: "on" or "off"

"on" means blasting to the fullest extent possible
nearly improbable
unbelievable, absurd
distortion is a synonym

"off" means broken
or someone forgot to turn it on

the pyramids

who built the pyramids
back then

do you think we could
do it again?

a non-fiction guy thing

it's true
could happen to you
i put mayonnaise in my suitcase
the next day she found it in my shoe

I admit i didn't check the lid
that's the worst i did
so what can a fellow do?
if not me, then who?

but nothing gooey came out
that's how the story ends
with promises to do better
we're still friends

(i think she's watchin' me)

taste

in the vatican museum i noticed the floor
and thought when target and others makes new tiles
why not do decent copies of beautiful tiles from history?

why produce new inferior designs?
sure, new sells, but you can sell anything

some old stuff is incredible
don't buy into fashion when it is base
why not remake old cars, old clothes
old everything that was beautiful and loved
using modern materials

let's cut the trash and clean the globe
with a bit of taste

a second good idea

how about that smart car
and now that's done
let's move ahead far
bring on the stupid one

extra wide, extra long, gas guzzler
one tiny window, under-inflated tires
no mirrors, sluggish manual steering, no muffler
also runs on coal fires

music to my knees

it nearly brings me to my knees
would you play it as gently
again, if you please

you know, somehow
and this i don't mean lightly
that melody touches me

extemporaneously?
how did that come about?
it was not planned, merely stumbled upon?

what i hear in that
takes me up somehow
turns me 'round

i want it with me
to carry away, to take home
bring out when i'm alone

i need to listen again
to learn what it is saying to me
so i can respond properly

i want to respond
i know i can
it is talking to me

same sea

the next day
no wind at all
hardly the same sea

a gentle roll
this pearly morn
quiet lapping at the shore

waiting for the small boat fisherman
to bring up his net by the red buoy
i want to catch him
at his solitary work and live vicariously

auto-overdrive

i dreamed on automatic overdrive
the mediterranean was sweeping waves of long green stems
with yellow flowers
and it all broke on the shore
i was neck deep and flopping

karolina made the hotel beds in polish military fashion
we were bound like mummies
using shrink wrap
to keep us in place
three thousand years

yesterday she wore her cupcake howitzer bra
mounted on twin staggered gun mounts
one aimed high, one covering the field
in the lobby as she turned my way
i prudently took a step back

Happy is the acting hotel director
how could you name your son Happy
and not get what you'd expect?
Happy, shut up. Happy, sit down.

waves

all night out of phase
waves broke air bubbles
that cracked and crunched

i thought it was shore rocks
sliding in and out
in the morning i saw few rocks, mostly sand

it was the power of water
of air grinding, popping
let’s harness that power

some day
these will be the good old days

without a net

on our way training down
south of roma, south of napoli
the pearl of the med
to get sand in our shoes
a sleepy place with nothing going on
after three days we’ll be friends with the guy who drives the local bus to town where the pizza is good
we’ll be there
with no net, no kidding, and too cold to swim

but the hotel remembers us
not actually, of course, unless they have chips
this one doesn’t even have rice crispies
something for the kids of the future to look forward to
chips implanted in hotels so it remembers you
“Oh, not you again, you little...”

back in this time warp
we like carolina, she’s the polish worker
she will be the only one there
the old lady has something with the bones in her foot
can’t get shoes on and won’t be there
we’ll be the only guests
our terrace is large
right on the beach

nothing to do
a tv in the lobby, hardly on
only the lapping of the mediterranean
on and on, rolling back and forth
dragging rocks on the shore

space to read, write, draw and observe
then while walking the shore
looking far off, out to sea or toward the clouds
i’ll think of you

stuff with the big guys

if we could stuff basketballs
soar way over the rim and drop it in
we’d make millions on a two year contract
pose for picture so countless others
could hang it on their wall

sign an autograph if we had to
have a driver take us around
get the best seats everywhere
and get all the drugs we need before we have to
leave our place in the sun for a few days to testify

climate

it's time we
quit calling it global warming
and say it like it is
global climate change

when in rome

1952 audrey hepburn and gregory peck filmed roman holiday
that was good, however
mary kate and ashley olsen's movie
when in rome , filmed in 2002
was meridith's international film debut

they shot a scene on our street, via dei cappellari
where the girls walked by
at the same time meri stuck her head out of our window
to see what was going on down there

and is clearly seen for one second in the film

she did it in one take
without a rehearsal or makeup
and they didn't even have to ask her to look out the window

when they send the first million
we'll split it with you
(you notice i've got my hand on it already)

day starts quickly

day starts quickly
without hesitation
the orange ball is up, on its way
for another loop through the heavens

i rapid shower and dress
my wet hair’s a mess
an hour swiftly passed, no more
coffee down, i’m out the door

grim riders

silent-trance bus riders
in blank, unblinking stare
look ahead, deep, slow eyed and unseeing
haunting with their faces

seated facing me was one of those
of the impermeable, inpenetrable void
not knowing
just there
set in icy stone
an uncaring, unforgiving dead grim gaze
born of fear and oppression
passed by generations
that witnessed gladiators fight to the death
sons turn cold
and heretics burn at the stake
a locked down scowl that will out wait hell
refuses happiness exists, or hope a possibility

moments before her stop
she mysteriously transported herself
from the dark ages to the modern era
having readjusted her face, she left the bus

rubbish

a ball of rubbish
the size of texas
is floating in the sea

it’s not science fiction
who’s cleaning this up?
not you, not me

the writer's life, both of them

the little woman is telling me
a writer’s life’s too narrow
sighted only on what he can see
i see it like a winged sparrow

while the powerful princess whacks away
i’ve got to write my own, you see
let’s lift our hats to the writers work
without the mcmurtrys where would we be

the saga ends all to soon
give me the great stories and actors to play
winter’s gone, it’s nearly june
be content writers know what to say

the words fly on like a wounded sparrow
as thought lines soar, rush and dart
nearly downed by the random arrow
coming to rest, so near the heart

i’ll labor on long as i am able
the ship goes down while runs the rat
i hear her say, “supper’s on the table”
now tell me, how’d she do that?

times are a changing - right now they are

friends came to roma from california
had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the colosseum

at least three or four employees spoke english
ten years ago none would have

parliment

the first saturday of the month the italian senate is open for visitors
we waited in line forty-five minutes in light rain
this former residence where the government works
is palazzo madama

built upon the ancient baths of nero
the palace was completed in 1505 for the medici family
two medici cardinals who later became popes lived here
the painter caravaggio worked and lived here for five years

the large stone structure was redone again in 1650
four stories with hundreds of rooms
the enterior is elaborate, ornately decorated in the period and splendid

both government houses meet and many have their offices here
the corridors are long, the ceilings high and ornate
impressive is the large chamber where the senate convenes
we saw it from above in the audience gallery

that chamber is on the tv news every week
it was a nice change of pace to be in the seat of the government
all we had to do was wait patiently in a light rain