Award Winning Poem -- April 2007

The Café Trieste

...this timeless place of
times and familiar faces,
table tops laughing with tinkle of confetti-tiles,
proudly hosting
the best damned 
cappuccino and 
almond rings in the City,
back wall fresco smoke clouded
still young Columbus smiles
upon his new land,
brickish faux-marble wainscot
hundreds of photo-smiles 
from fading tan walls
	(the Giottas, Pavarotti, Allioto, Fra. Guido Sarducci,
	musicians, bambini e tutti)
and music 
	(mandolin, accordion, upright piano, guitar)
stirs echoes of singing
	(Gianni, Gianfranco, Favio, Lory, Sonia e tutti).

Brown and traditional saucers and cups 
demi-spoons to plunge through clown white
chocolate-speckled caps,
black beans roasting next door
making us high with aroma and
humming while the jukebox plays,
	le belle canzoni di amore e la morte.

Crowded today with some other
Saturday bodies -- old friends absent
	(Bruno, Yolanda, Matteo, Madaline e tutti)
gone too, yet still floating like the ghost of Frisco fog 
floating in the air,
the contemplative lair which once held
Ginsburg, Kerouac, Kesey, Ferlinghetti e tutti
hurried and haunted by mad 
hearts and queer demons 
penning unknown words 
for a new age.

Ciao.