Italy And The Midas Touch

Ponto Vecchio

Every evening at sunset

The shopkeepers seal the bridge’s gold

With heavy wooden boards.

Then the sun comes and

Spreads it

Generously

Across the River Arno.

Street Artist

Soon the city van

Will appear

To wash away the love

From the street.

He strokes her body,

And draws one last kiss

From her vanishing face.

Locks

The locks,

Entangled,

Like rosary beads

On the bridge of gold

Where all must pass.

Those

Entrapped by her beauty

Hope

Wish

Pray

Someday to return

To open her gates

Where their names are carved

And her lock is sealed.

Wrennaisance

The birds get together

At the bar on the bridge,

Happy hour,

Small talk.

Roma

On the steps of Rome

Lovely roses

Cover their heads

In colors of light

Extend a crying hand

And wilt.

Tiber at night

The lights are running down the river

The water of the end of October

Are empty

Nobody is there

Pile of leaves is lying on the

Banks of the road

And the cars pass by like

Lightnings.

• Translated by Shulamit Sapir-Nevo

Gypsy

Gypsy

Pulling his music

Out of a wounded wooden box,

In the lap of a matron

Tunes from his heart rise

Across from the eternal hills of her beauty

And fall

At her feet.

Verona

In Julia’s Courtyard

The door is open

On her veranda

Now, naked and golden

She blossoms in the garden,

Where many hands touch her breast,

But none her heart.