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
Categories:
strada, adventure, april, books, break
Form: Blank verse
Tat on a Saturday night roll
For Sunday morning breakfast
Key twists to brain cells
With porticular pundits
Rippling on through
In fast streaming flows
Cream in my coffee a sipping
of seasons
A diary opened
Spoken in codes
Sweet tart and tasteful
My appetite grows
Strada fresh baking
A roma that glows
Categories:
strada, food, seasons, thank you,
Form: Rhyme