"..The structure of our dreams and memories, closed off from the world, has its communal counterpart in film. When we imagine an instant somewhere-- a streak of silvery beach in a place we've never been to-- or when we wake in a sweat from a dream we only half remember, or when memories occur to us, in fragments, with abrupt transitions, we find ourselves in subjective time and space, in the grip of the mind's own devices, and the moment is not unlike the pacing of a film, edited into snatches, flashes, segments of experience that represent a radical departure from the unbroken flow of the world around us." Don DeLillo, "That Day in Rome," New Yorker Oct. 2, 2003

Cinematografo: Donna con l'ombrello rosso

Firenze. A narrow street. We'd call it an alley
a cleft between soot-darkened stone walls
Rain rain wet cobblestones.
A vendor sells umbrellas.

This is real. Somewhere in that old city
such a street exists. Via-- via-- something or other
Cobblestones. Gray walls. Umbrella shop.

I examine a red umbrella. Look up

see down the street a woman facing me
defiantly planted in the center of the street
feet apart, hands pocketed in her tan trench coat
hair damply lank under the brim of the matching tan hat
a crimson scarf the only splash of color in that
otherwise dun dreariness.

And then the blatting flatulence of a scooter
flying up behind me. A boy and a girl.
The woman unflinching the bike
swerving around her. The girl turns back shouts
a nasty Italian epithet, gestures with her finger
the international insult.

The woman walks away in the rain.
carrying now the red umbrella. Another scooter another
boy and girl careening dangerously around her.
The girl shouts proffers the insolent salute. The woman stops
turns around waits a moment returns the gesture
then looking at me touches the finger to her lips
turns her back walks away the red umbrella behind her
fading memory fantasy old movie l'ombrello rosso...

I hold onto reality, she says, hanging by a finger.
Resist, resist, I say, Let go, Let go

...............................................................Israel Lewis

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