Diaspora - Poem #16

Bougainvillea
Passegiatta
Old men doffing borsalinos
wearing double breasted suits.

Topolinos in the street
run as if on memory
pretty girls now walking by
laughing, giving boys the eye.

“Un espresso piacere”
evening star just visible
sitting at a little table
opposite the Odeon.

Gone from home a hundred years
still it’s in the DNA
deeply felt the tribal rite
as dusk comes over Africa.

Seeing Nona take her walk
a small piazza near her home,
sitting watching passegiatta
oh so far away from Rome.

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