Seeds

My advice to
you would be:

 

take care to know the times

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">when life is so sweet, that the

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">taste of it threatens
to render

all
other flavors mute and

moot, dusty, cobwebbed.

 

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">the times when life tastes

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">so warm, that it's
liquor

seems to
drug you beyond

help, beyond return, beyond

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">the will to be undrugged.

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in
0pt"> 

*

 

After sunrise over the

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Coloseum, and goodbye

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">kisses from Cesco, I
walked

to the
Galleria Borghese

and taking my ticket from

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">an indifferent volunteer, I

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">walked up the stairs
and past

the
Carvaggios directly to

Bernini's "Rape of

Persephone". I stared at

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Jupiter's back for minutes

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">on end,

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in
0pt"> 

 

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">*

 

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">so beautiful it is

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">horrifying- imposing
and terrible

with sex and softness and firmness

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> 

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">and you should look
down

 

down from

his shoulders to

his lower back and the V of muscles there and the
inevitability of them and to

his certain bottom and the crease under the cheek and

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">his straining calf
with it's infinite potential,

 

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">to Cerberus and to

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">his mouths and their
frothing fierceness, and to

his tail

(not fierce but curled in happiness, as he is a dog at

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">his master's feet
after all).

 

*

 

The marble, finished and polished

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">and sighed over
hundreds of years

ago, came screaming down the

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">centuries toward me, and tears

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">came to my eyes, as
someone

else's
poetry leapt from hell, wrapped

it's flaming arms around me and pulled

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">me back down with it.
I didn't

fight
back, I had no guardian, no

weapons, only teeth full of seeds-

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> 

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">the taste of them
asphyxiating the last cell in me that wasn't committed entirely to
romance and sentimentality.

 

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">*

 

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Later I walked out in

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">the gardens, and
smiled

and
smiled, a song from

my childhood had hold

of my brain- the theme

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">from a cheap

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">and omnipresent

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">romance from the 80's.

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in
0pt"> 

(Very small, the first time

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I watched that film it

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">was with a bitter

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">sadness, as it only
showed

me
things, I had to assume, I would

never be allowed to taste.

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> 

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">No man would ever
fight for me,

no
man would stand in front of a crowd and call me beautiful.)

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in
0pt"> 

But as it happened, in a rich

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">and absurd moment the night

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">previous,

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in
0pt"> 

when

we were walking

together in the night festival,

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> 

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">when

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I awkwardly tried to

explain the
meaning

of a
difficult word, he said:

 

"nothing matters"

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> 

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">and I was
interrupted

by my
first Roman kiss

 

and just then

 

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">that was the song that

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">began to play as I
closed

my eyes
and kissed and smiled.

 

and just then-

 

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">sweetness

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> 

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">for as long as the
taste lingers everything seems reasonable, and possibly certain-

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">sculpted in stone,
committed to guard dog instinct.

 

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">*

 

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">so walking under the

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">trees, and among the

vendors selling
black

and white
prints of Audrey

Hepburn and Gregory Peck

 

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">you should appreciate the joke-

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">that Dirty Dancing and
Bernini are now inseparable within your mind's ether

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in
0pt"> 

you should smile and smile.

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">A seed-eater

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">forever, a fool, not in

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">love, but in

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">something.

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in
0pt"> 

Something we don't have a good word for,

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">but can be seen
anytime we wish,

in the careless tail of the howling guardian of hell.