i never loved you more
than i did this afternoon
when we met in front of the cafe
we should have been in Rome
sipping coffee in the Piazza Navonna,
our feet in the Fountain of the Four Rivers
I can see it now
we laugh and splash out of the fountain
to prop our wet feet up on the tanks
the soldiers have aimed their cannon
toward Trastevere at the old woman
who stands at a window and sings
ballads about wars Italians always lose
below her, spies run narrow alleys
and wine drips from pergola into mouths of cupids—
the baker shouts after school boys
who steal loaves from his stand out front
we loll in the Fontana di Trevi,
invite romans to join us in a fiesta of legs,
haunches, generous bosoms,
and men whose backsides make the old woman
remember the days when the boys were soft and taut
the pope climbs to St. Peter’s cupola
to issued another bull about people
making love in fountains and mocking soldiers
in tanks protecting the virtue of the republic
we wait a few minutes and make love again—
the old woman recites poems
while her husband, wrinkled like Umbria,
strums the whores of Perugia like lyres
people stream from theaters, love exhausted,
eyes glassy bright—fishermen jump
bow to bow across the Po
young lovers care not about fascisti, spia, polizia segreta
but only that Pan has ushered in a time of forgetfulness
yes, the soldiers turtle out of the tanks now
and the waiter at the Cafe Navonna
wears nothing but his apron
along the alleys, spies pine for days
when wretchedness was good business
young lovers stretch out along grapevines
and wine flows from the lips and nipples and penises
of every marble cherub and god
the old man runs off with his Perugian whores;
the old woman stands naked in the window
flanked with strong, anxious young men,
with never-ending hard ons and a penchant for service
she sings arias to linden budding in the square
under the statue of St. Andrew, the pope has given up,
he wanders St. Peter’s, raises his hands to heaven, cries,
and the world rejoices at rebirth
in this moment on a sidewalk
you and I become complete,
whole, needing nothing
with god’s blessing
