that's amore.

A man in Italy once told me

one of his favorite singers

was Etta James.

Mine too!

Have you ever heard

Fool That I Am?

One of the greatest

songs of all time.

In that moment I knew.

Wine and skin

A random local theater

performance all in Italian.

Hot springs under the stars

A singalong on the ride home

We lived a movie that night

with our motley crew.

All this magic aside,

it had been 3 countries

since I’d gotten laid.

As they say, that’s amore!

Morning espresso

sitting in the windowsill of a

medieval stone building

My bare ass on hallowed history

it didn’t deserve to feel

Pinch me.

Six more inches

to the right

I would have dropped

off the earth

Into a forest of trees below

Falling into nothingness

as I wished to

with someone

He called me the

strawberry on top of the cake

It was impossible not to

melt like frosting

My reflex to eye roll dissolved

Like sugar on the tongue

Don’t you judge me, baby

It’s just part of the fun.

All of this to tell you

Marco’s spirit never seemed

to leave the moment.

Showing his belly

is just how he lived

When he smiled

it was big

A vulnerability

I aspire to.

I wish when I was younger

That more importance was put

on how to live

Instead of how living looks.

Now that I’m back home

In all this time alone

Dissecting my feeble need

to not feel a fool

Made me think of how he

sang so loudly

Driving two silly American girls

all through Italy

Teaching one what it was like

to live freely

The purest kind of generosity.

A lesson that

the only way to live

is let go.