Once a month we host an Open Mic here in Florence at the Hostel Tasso. Last night I got Nadia Koski and Marcello from Sushi Rain to help me with out with an old love poem of a sort.

At the Stork Club

Me performing at Paul Corman-Roberts series "Crows in the Stork's Nest" at the Stork Club in Oakland, CA on August 14th, 2013.

For a full Write-up and film of the entire event see this page of the LITSEEN Blog.

Florence

Florence (For Debra Arlene Zeller)

Florence,

Like a lover, spread

before me, unrelentingly

itself, indifferent to me

and all my bitter euphoria

Florence,

in the rain, clouds seeded

with desire spent, desire

regained and that sad old fucker

full in the sky, over my shoulder

            followed me home

—then, when the smoke cleared—

An habitué of years

of lonely Florentine nights

I pissed on the Fortezza

walked along the Mugnone

invisible as Calandrino

—no heliotrope in my pockets—

writing text messages as your train

lurched towards the Apennines, the Alps

and I found your scent

            in my room:

It was like coming

            face to face

with my own ghost.

I named her Florence.

12/14/2008

Firenze

Florence by Lee Foust