Photograph

A trattoria, all gingham cloths
and chianti bottle lamps,
looks onto a square
in the wrong Latin country.
Gianni knows very well
the feminine is unchanged here,
but 'il`becomes 'el' outside
the doors of 'Il Griglio Parlante´.

On the restaurant walls
are monochrome memories
from the days of bombazined matrons
to those of mini-skirted smoking girls.
Over a table in a quiet corner
is Gianni's favourite photograph.
In a still cobbled Rome, boys on Vespas
and slit-eyed old men stare after elegance.

The woman, wasp-waisted, has her back
to the unknown photographer.
Her arms are bare, though her white-gloved hands
carry a clutch-bag that matches her shoes.
The skirt of her Schiparelli dress is A-line,
Gianni tells me over many Grappas
that the woman in the photo is La Loren.
All the men´s faces tell me this is true.