Livorno
The communist uprising in Livorno was a serious menace to Italy because that army sent tanks, not big tanks but big enough in narrow streets
At the railway station, I met a small woman with a big
suitcase, I offered to carry it for her; little did I know she lived outside the town; it was a burdensome walk on unlit roads
At the parvenue cafe, I met a woman I had seen before
Short black hair of dubious gender (let them guess)
sat drinking Pernod, smoking a cigarette that had the aroma of oriental express
I must have seen her before. Was it in Monte Carlo?
She beckoned to me to sit at her table
I had a cold beer
and smoked a Chesterfield and my arm was numb carrying the bloody suitcase for a woman who told me she was an actress going to Rome to star in an upcoming movie called
La Strada
years later Kristiansand, a town in Norway, was on a catering course
I saw the film, yeah, it was the woman I had met in Livorno
A sudden blackout that might have been caused by the Reds
the cafe supplied candles, that on a night of uncertainty
made the plaza romantic, the Monte Carlo woman had vanished, like a cigarette ad on the TV screen
I got a polo neck jumper.
She said they were in.
Pep wears one.
He hasn’t manboobs.
Ribbed, dark grey.
Tighter than it should of been.
With a vintage leather, black jacket.
Sophisticated,continental,
so I bought a pain au chocolate.
From Greggs.
I think he thought I was francais as
I ordered and added si vous plait.
Then blew it by being unable to resist a sausage roll.
Which later I found out to be rouleau de saucisse, not un sausage roll, si vous plait.
“What the bollocks do you look like?”
“Where’s the Milk tray?”
were the first comments at the pub.
But their jealousy was obvious and measurable, being directly proportional to the amount of beer spat out as I walked in.
I ordered a Pernod chaser with my pint of pale ale, small steps.
~ Monotetra form ~
No man's eyes will ever conceive
the things another mind may weave
If this counsel you don't believe
You are naïve You are naïve
What lies behind a masked facade
is oft' unfit to praise and laud
Tread lightly when sipping pernod
Beware the fraud Beware the fraud
One cannot brush away with paint
the darkened soul that's ripe with taint
With deceivers do not acquaint
They ruse and feint They ruse and feint
From mesmeric masks turn away
Treacherous hearts tend to betray
A friend becomes a mocking jay
And you their prey And you their prey
You cannot lift the wicked veil
of the beast with forked tongue and tail
Though legions have tried to assail
To no avail To no avail
The Initiation
It is not easy to be young at 16 I was a galley boy
on a tankship that even then 60 years ago was ancient
crewed by old mariners who spent their free time
playing cards and talking about whores and now the ship
had docked in Le Havre.
It was dark when I went ashore sat in a bar and drank
Pernod I think. I didn`t go in there had promised my mother
to stay away from alcohol and women.
Light rain and the street light was sparse like there was still
a war on, a small girl standing in the rain looking like
a sparrow with a broken wing.
We went to a small hotel, but I didn`t have enough money
I got to keep my virginity for another day.
Walking back to the ship it was still raining and the old men
sat drinking one of them saw me and invited me in I accepted
by now I was so lonely and needed someone to talk to,
it was not like I could call my mother from a cell phone and
anyway, we didn`t have a phone back home.
The ancient mariners carried me on board.
The Initiation
It is not easy to be young at 16 I was a galley boy
on a tankship that even then 60 years ago was ancient
crewed by old mariners who spent their free time
playing cards and talking about whores and now the ship
had docked in Le Havre.
It was dark when I went ashore sat in a bar and drank
Pernod I think. I didn`t go in there had promised my mother
to stay away from alcohol and women.
Light rain and the street light was sparse like there was still
a war on, a small girl standing in the rain looking like
a sparrow with a broken wing.
We went to a mall hotel, but I didn`t have enough money
I got to keep my virginity for another day.
Walking back to the ship it was still raining and the old men
sat drinking one of them saw me and invited me in I accepted
by now I was so lonely and needed someone to talk to,
it was not like I could ring my mother from a cell phone and
anyway, we didn`t have a phone back home.
The ancient mariners carried me on board.
JENNY FREE VERSE
Balaclava over my head,
I nipped into the John Hewitt
and went nervously up to the bar.
'Are you a poet?' a woman's voice inquired.
I dreaded the question, so embarrassed. It was a key moment.
'I'm ... I play with words on paper!'
I fumbled in my pocket for a pen and notebook.
'I'm having fun with the language!'
I laughed - I felt a great weight
lift from my shoulders
as she slipped the balaclava
off my head and kissed me.
'Can I buy you a drink?' the lady
bought me a Pernod, and hey presto!
we were off to the races,
talking passionately
About Heaney, Mahon and Longley.
Jenny Free Verse
gave me her number,
promised to have a look at my notebook
and give me some feedback.
'Cheers!'
I waltzed down the street,
got back to the house in ¾ time,
got my Italian leather, hand-crafted,
writing journal out from the tall boy
and wrote, ‘I just met Jenny Free Verse!'
A walrus and a carpenter were sitting on a beach.
They had eaten a bunch of oysters within their reach.
After eating, the walrus expressed a bit of remorse.
They ate so many; they had no room for the main course.
The walrus said, “I have found a recipe in a cook book.
Carpenter, this looks tasty. Will you please have a look?
It was invented in New Orleans by Chef Antoine.
Unfortunately, the original recipe is unknown and gone.
However, many reasonable facsimiles exist.
We already have most of the ingredients on the list.
This way, we can use the leftover butter and bread.
There is no absinthe, but we can use Pernod instead.
We can meet here tomorrow when we are ready for lunch.
We can draw more of those stupid oysters by the bunch.”