Val di Mello

Quando finisce un amore

ti senti un nodo nella gola

ti senti un buco nello stomaco

ti senti un vuoto nella testa e non capisci niente

— Riccardo Cocciante

I feel the softness

of my blouse as your hand touches it

You flick me a smile

Silk is the fabric of love, you say

La seta è il tessuto dell'amore

Your words, your hands, your look make me

buzz and hover like a honeybee

It’s just what I need

at twenty-three and about to leave

the world I know

On your Yamaha 650

you take me to your favourite place

the wind around our bodies

the snow high on the Alps

Val di Mello, the valley of honey

the grass is a feather quilt

the water is golden

Its glistening froth clings to the rocks

floating, holding on to something

already gone

Your love sticks to me like honey

Quando finisce un amore

When a love ends

Because of Val di Mello

because you — we — are not real

because a black hole is forming

a new home without you

Once, on the far continent, I write to you

in my Italian latinizzato, as you call it,

but I don’t hear you say this

I don’t see your glorious smile,

I don’t feel your hands reaching for mine

I don’t sense the empty seat behind you on the Yamaha

Quando finisce un amore

Then one morning,

a letter from you,

sent many months before

Plans to visit,

now long gone

Tineke Van der Eecken