- I am concerned about Claudia Cardinale.
- By ‘concerned’ I mean ‘in lust with’.
- By ‘in lust with’ I mean ‘I sigh for’.
- By ‘I sigh for’ I mean ‘my eyes are hungry for her when she appears on screen’.
- By ‘hungry’ I mean ‘revel in her’.
- By ‘revel’ I mean ‘enjoy’.
- By ‘enjoy’ I mean ‘endure’.
- By ‘endure’ I mean ‘wait in the hope that she might, like a god, pick me out to be noticed, even though I have done nothing noticeable’.
- By ‘pick me out’ I mean ‘not actually come near me lest my reserves of charm desert me at a highly inopportune moment’.
- By ‘not actually come near me’ I mean ‘actually come near me, preferably in a darkened Neapolitan hotel room’.
- By ‘darkened’ I mean ‘the presence of Tomasi di Lampedusa will be evident; he will be sitting in a green damask armchair, his walking stick tapping out the beat of a fugue’.
- By ‘fugue’ I mean ‘a Morse code translation of his most famous quote’.
- By ‘quote’ I mean ‘the only appropriate approach to living’.
- By ‘living’ I mean ‘love’.
Rishi Dastidarm reading this poem:
Rishi Dastidar | iamb ~ poetry seen and heard (iambapoet.com)
Poem chosen by Emilia Mirazchiyska
