My Italiano

You stressed and strained

against them,

- male or female -

you stressed and strained.

Your beauty and your art,

was razed by gravity -

to flit about with paint and toy with words? -

get thee to the marketplace and into

the arenas of politics! Go!

But your art and beauty is

held in safe reserve, my Italiano, mine.

You saw, you admired, you breathed,

You know the secret heart.

You mourned, and that was so.

Appropriate, indeed.

But heed the current time of day,

and unlace the bridles of old.

The things of soul grow richer

still, my noble Italiano, with age,

and reveal the integrity of your

self-inquisition.

copyright Monika Roleff 2005.