City At Night (or The Velocity of Italy)

Morning in Italy.

France in the rearview

after two grueling days

a thing about the French:

besides the chain-smoking death wish,

there’s an overall feeling of defensiveness,

and between them and myself

an argument on the meaning

of cleanliness in all meanings

not to generalize, but I am

-beware of cowards who fear

the weight of being general

all the other details and exceptions

are obvious

and the French I met outside of

Avignon, that beautifully walled-in

city rich with heritage,

structures and stone

molested by industry

an ancient strip mall now

expensive shoes and

dog shit on the streets

men who were absent

of eye

the women who were beautiful to see

but the people away from there,

the wine country in

Provence, flush with

dream

white birches like claws reaching out

of earth

the villages pressed against

a countryside so green and

graced with with hills and

light

I almost couldn’t watch them

the people of the small stops

and stations with their laughing

hearts and deep blood

that gave into Monaco

and the Italian border

and the velocity of Italy

the drivers insane, but a

controlled, adrenaline type of insane

not like the greedy recklessness of

the French roads

but a menacing, playful

shit-eating grin danger

that I have to respect

all of it pours together here

the faces, the language,

the lust for living

the ease at which they approach

life

the appreciation and care

for food

for drink

for speaking

for how they leave each other

feeling when they walk away

here in Siena, the morning traffic downstairs

comes up through the the window

and exposes the States

and I sit here thinking about

the lives broken, bent, and twisted

or bent, twisted, and then broken but

still breathing, moving onto the next

many of them waited in their beds

or behind the counters

or behind their desks

pervasive in gender and city

the evil stupidity

of them all

not to say that

every place doesn’t have

its evils, because every

place does

but let this one stay

new to me

let me feel this

heavy metal

wind

and sun

until I have to fly

back into

the known.