Enga mellom fjella

1991 D Quarter; Italian anyone?

1991 D Quarter

You are 18
and I would be...

old the day you were born
like this coin minted in Denver
encrusted with the leavings of a thousand hands
worn and devalued
a product of time and inflation.

Yet you are fresh
far more fresh than metal stamped with a face and an eagle
flesh still too firm to have been worn and devalued
too slim and naïve to know the future,
your own inflation.

You are 18
and I would still be...

old.

© Kåre Enga [166.146] 2009-07-20

Picked up a nasty looking quarter and wrote while I was sitting at The Break Espresso last night.

A rhyming (kinda) resource in Italian: http://www.alcor.com.au/italian_rhyming_dictionary.asp

Now... I had to find a rhyme for cosa (thing) and chose dolorosa (painful).

And then I went back and forth between three languages trying to come up with an Italian version of yesterday's rondelet in French. The 4/8/4/8/8/8/4 became 6/12/6/12/12/12/6 (give or take a syllable or two).

è la stessa cosa
nel tuo cuore o la tua canzone
è la stessa cosa
perché quando la morte dolorosa
distrugge la pace in questa stagione
e non vi è alcuna buona ragione
è la stessa cosa

Egads! I'm having too much fun. BTW... Io non parlo italiano.

Gnus: How long will you live? Reports are that centenarians will double by mid-century. A Britain from WW I just died at 113. The oldest man may be in Great Falls, Montana:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090720/ap_on_re_us/us_oldest_man

Blah-blah-blah: Did a workshop on ekphrasis today. The Dana Gallery had removed a charcoal I had chosen, but the other paintings, sculpture and photographs were still there. We each then went to Fact & Fiction to write. Went okay.

Did about 6 short 'poetic' sketches today. 4 for workshop and 2 while sitting next to Rattlesnake Creek.

Images: (from Sunday's sunset along the Clark Fork Caras Park to Orange Street): pink roses; gold yarrow; spent grass; the grey-green plant of knapweed blooming pale purple; sounds of the carousal before closing; sun at the horizon; gold bugs; white yarrow, it's pungent leaves; cut poplar (beaver at work?); the ever-flowing river, receded from the high level of Spring.

Montana: 83° at 9 p.m. in Missoula.

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