-Rose and Pietro and a soundbite from Lennon in typical form-

               "what happens when the bubble bursts"?
               
               1.
               history's finer plateaus are revisited
               now and then, so

               some of the early characterizations

               cling to the current nature of things.

               but I’m less easily distracted

               and my span of attention has increased.
               even so, it remains a short crossing.

               I've cultivated an ability to zero-in.

               so this is the way it is.

               I do more than just look around.

               I consider my findings and tell short stories
               (stacked narrowly at the beam)
               of occasional interest to a small audience.

               but my prints are all over the place.

               2.
               an ancient Italian woman introduced to me
               the two-knot system of securing my laces.
               she struggled against the tenacity of my left handedness.

               she brought a husband and her knowledge of the old world

               to the new world long before Mussolini's inversion at Mezzegra.

               it was Pietro, her husband, who introduced

               the measure of peace to an otherwise frantic interior.

               he had his peculiar easy-chair set-up with its fixings in the kitchen

               with an occasional chicken or two, also inverted, bleeding-out,
               hanging in the entry

               and still,–– after all these early goings-on and other things,
               I'm reminded of Lennon's lament from the backseat of his limousine
               when he came to answer:–– "I'm still waiting for the bubble".