So I went to Venice for a wedding last week and made a stop in Milan (Milano). I boarded the plane at JFK and on the way over had a very uncomfortable seat in the bulkhead exit row by the window. I fell asleep during my second ever viewing of “Kung Fu Panda” but saw the entirety of “School Rocks” (Scuola di Rocko -it was Jack Black day at the inflight movies}.
Actually the flight landed in Milan and this blogger had to make it to the central train station there and then catch a train to Venice and then a vaporetto from piazza ferrovia to the Academia and then to walk over to Rio Terra across from the famed art museum where he met the groom’s party and then we all walked over to the Scuola del Carmini where the wedding was to be held.
Outside of the scuola in the Piazza Magherita there was an open air flea market. I spied an earthenware cameo inspired Italian pottery dish. I wanted to buy it not knowing whether to purchase it for my mother or the bride. I had about a hundred euros on my person and an ex Peter Gatien security official who also worked once worked for a government agency wanted to borrow some money for another item leaving this blogger with just enough to acquire the green and red dish.
The wedding itself was something and the bride wore a four thousand dollar Carolina Herrera strapless cream dress with mirrored glass sewn into the fabric right at the breast line.
Outside when it was time to throw the meal ingrediant this blogger made mention to toss it softly and to say this was Condoleeza rice (rice through with sweetness because that’s what the current secretary of state’s first name means in Italian with sweetness). This was worth a brief laugh and the boquet was thrown and caught by an English woman and freind of the bride who was suposedly the next to get married as it was. This lady is a collector of poodlebilia (tangible items dealing with poodles) and sitting around a large out in a piazza the next night with the group having campari coktails this itinerant bloggger Informed them of “the cheese poodle” a large hybrid pooch created by the intercourse of a golden retriever and a giant toy poodle owned by the artist Greg Coates and the curator Kiki Niebaer in Allentown, pennsylvania. { and they made me explain it in detail as if I were insane..like I was talking about a package of dried orange unhealthy snacks in the shape of pompidoured dogs which leak powdery orange granules which stain..uh huh!
Artists Steve Meeks and Tyrome Tripoli had showed up and soon it was off to the wedding dinner at the Venetian hotspot Osteria Boccodoro. Meanwhile I forgot to mention the brides brother had officiated at the wedding and wore a long sleeved black shirt from Pakistan which gave him an exotic flair.
Meanhile in Italy I continued to be wrting my “italian Hotel Shopping Mall Poem” which can be read in its’ current entirety right here…
The Italian Shopping Mall Poem
Part one: Hit the Ground Shopping
Hit the ground Shopping
In that entrance back to rememberance
Black scatter pattern stenciled in
All of the unseen movements of in and out through the heart of black
Legions marched trough petri dishes
Though the same motion of the same line the multitudes unseen and reformatted
All the time
Sure I should not have said to “shut up”
That was hurtful and if it was said to me as I said to you as it was said to me in my youth
It would boomerang and did
“On a holiday provided for by those in a family who are senior in both age and monetary wherewithal to those whom they have taken with the voyage where the paradox is as one allows for the enjoyment of the others one has provided for the provider may feel at the time that their earnings converted into the leisure time of others gained at their expense whilst the whole point of the journey to begin with was for all who took it to become relaxed”
Such words come as feelings are remembered
The bus trip is never taken to the
Discount outlets and malls
First told about in a dark bar never talked about
Sectored off from this reality
Return and shop
Dark love in a dissappearance
Not far from the Piazza Della Signoria
Dark love in a dark bar
Still the boyish ones show up
All devices up and at them
All systems go
Faces flash silver against black
Off like quick silver photographs
Dark lust in a dark bar
The dark cages all around I come again
And again and again and again
Return off of the same hop?
Part Two: the Hotel Shopping Mall Poem
The hotel shopping mall poem balloons
Once there was a balloon of a hotel named lunacy
With a Venetian scene over the establishment’s
Insignia crown- overhead
Over to the left
Is the mall once grid façaded
Of dark green olive under white
Though now by gating over-cast
On an overcast day replete
With horses; show jumping equestrians, bric-a-brac vendors
Boy and girl scouts, sun-glassed bus drivers, cyber simulcasters,
Local citizens, and baristas
Once there was a pink hotel’s shopping mall poem balloon
Overhead
Traveling the via the buildings are scarred
Some distressed garbage and recycling bunkers have suffered catastrophic damage
And bands of overjoyed teenagers make noise on the bus
Now a search on modes of motor transport
And attendant sensation
Colors lead the field in optical navigation
Diamonds on markers, directionals, gates
Segues of hues like in peppers or pimento on pizza
Red- yellow –orange- red
This poem would go anywhere to break the grid and has
Then over to the left
A proud male swan
With a banding of night mask
Surging forth
Pushed forward under its own sail like a sea horse
The young man wore the Gucci belt with double G’s
To hold up his pants up against his lithe frame
Red magenta flurry
And an Andrea Mantegna seen in a hurry
Up the steps with haberdashery
And then one raspberry sorbet colored small house stands alone
In the midst of a parking lot
A sprawling tree blossoming pink and red morphs
And extends above a cherry tomato lawnmower
Behind which is the textural side of the raspberry structure sorbet
And below all around comes a yellow traffic perimeter
And behind that still a field of bright blue
A bright blue field
After all that we are back in the parking lot
Bright pink neon illuminates the hotel de balloonacy
Balloonacy d’hotel
Gardens with large trees- open- welcoming in the summer months
Are atop the hotel of a balloon
The three pointed crown
Is the insignia of the balloon for the hotel
Free form further down
An addition
A new arcade mortared over the space besides some stores
To present a pleasant angel for and during your passiegiata
All of the window displays speak to me now
Actors and actresses players step onto this stage
Red from a traffic light colors the leaves on a tree
On come the over the street lights
As passes a black clad band of youths with dogs
A young man previously on his cell phone paces within a small range while smoking
Satellite dishes and other signal receiving devices
Atop the balloon of a hotel- the hotel of a balloon
Amidst the gardens
A split level mini-mall in Sienna
A top level leading to a street above
And street-side lower to another street below
A supermarket duplex is among others stores within
Further into Sienna the Piazza Del Palio
Inspirations the race is for such mega-mall the novel attractions
As-
Torre- The Trunk Show where an a animatronic elephant head whose trunk on a column
Sprays high pressure water jets
Lecondo- Unicorn on the Cob
And the porcupina colada
Where though a rotund man did needle the poet so often as to become il porcupino himself
I go walking away down the avenue
Out the from door of the motorbike store
Away from the train-station
And towards the hotel shopping mall poem
In a leather racing suit
Past distressed plastic garbage bunkers
Having sustained catastrophic damage
In An egg yolk explosion
And torn away burned to the nowhere combustion
In a leather motorbike racing-suit I go walking away yellow-black on fire
Next to green
Part Three;
Milano; Torino, and the Olympiad
“The Show Must Go Home”
A Spaghetti Best Western
The outlet mall
outlets in the mall
outlets on the wall in the mall
outlets in the hall
what is an outlet mall?
endless space allotted to light sockets?
a giant whole in the wall?
In-Café television
machines of indeterminate usage
in the light of back and forth intermittent illumination
otherwise know as slot machines
THE COVER BAND WILL NOW ASSASINATE THE DOORS
AND THEN MAKE ITS WAY FOR THE WINDOWS
Here comes the downhill muggers
Look at the Russian family all decked out in red and white nationalist gear
Where are they from?
They are from Powerade
The Gatorade stand-in
always found in the nearest commercial beverage locker
Presidential- Press credentials
Press Credentials- Presidential
“The Show Must Go Home”
I am off of the chocolate train
trenino gratuito
and back on the street
got my pen and my notebook
got no one to meet
though the balloon was blown into farfalle
and I am off the chocolate train
trenino gratuito
only to run into farfalle
at a shogun’s palace Sheraton at the crossroads
soon again
Here it is again
like walking through another
dreamscape
abandonded
in replicate
not totally;
obstacled
and chandeliered-
Cowhide
so many players
on the chessboard
obstacles
after all its’ just a furniture store
and not in Hong Kong
In the plaza/piazza
where street lights would be street lights
weren’t that they were in the inner courtyard
and that dream will resume
is never garunteed
High on frequent flier miles
alone in a Best Western hotel room
he watched the Olympiad on Italian television
Infernal McDonalds’
where it is not alright
to put up your elbows
and even in the slightest begin to doze
but it is alright to smoke
He watched the Olympics on television
alone high on frequent flier miles
in a Best Western hotel near the Duomo
with a breakfast buffet on the roof
Infernal McDonald’s
back at the infernal McDonald’s
a man in a black jacket with a golden gecko silk-screened onto
back in line from the point of purchase
remonstrating to his girlfriend
over and over
this man an Italian man
causes a security gaurd of African origins
in suit and a tie a golden stud earing in one ear and a shaved shiny brown scalp
to come over to him
this agent of fast food decorum enforcement says” tranquile” to him
as has the announcing official at the starting gate of Sienna’s infamous palio
to the pile-up of horses
{the guy lowers his voice and lessens his performance to several smaller outbursts
to the great embarassmento of his girlfreind who though never really revolts}
Now when it is his turn
to order the McDonalds employee at the register
in orange and white
is seamless and gets the previously loud mouth’s order right
Never one not to take one more turn
I sip water in a land of fire
at the corner alla scala
the flames are exploding
in the interior of an interior
off of the double decker
have I not seen such a scene of circumnavigation
‘inside the circle unsquared
or the triangle inside the circle unsquared
or is it a scene form a Italian restaurant
inside a scene from the italian shopping mall poem
He cannot decide
four corner turn burn
salon de octagon
“Persona non grata”
the film plays at the end
of the church cinema
two large flowers to the side
of the ticket takers booth
not enclosed by glass
petals of cherry vanilla
stalks in water- bulbs removed
trolleys course by
mopeds race round corners
from streets unseen
Downtown Niketown
Hannbal Lechter’s housewares
A Spaghetti Best Western
Drooping strands of poly resin poly chromatic sculpture
atop a converted mini-palazzo a spaghetti Best–Western of course
He watched the Olympics on television
alone high on frequent flier miles
in a best western hotel room near the duomo
with a breakfast buffet on the roof
after being directed to Florence by his son
the adrenaline of being with gods in expensive ski wear tighly packed in and fans screaming nationalist cheers and slinging cowbells attached to their bodies by metal structures as if by train tracks
manual flush port-a-johns
the half pip a backup singer for Gladys Knight split down the middle
the half pipe a snowboarding event
manual flush port a-johns on the streets of Turin
watching the Olympics in a best western high on frequent flier miles
a frequent crier smiles
A Spaghetti Best Western
a best western topped by spaghetti
a Spaghetti test pattern
Rosentwist
the long winds
of pasta
the circuitous routes through the alps
the tunnels like corkscrews noodles
sportscars flying through
and sliders on the luge down and around
the stay tuned to the stay tuned cease of operations
Technicolor color shield above psaghetti
in a would be Rosentwist
minus the hair dryer
the torque of the fork
the four prongs of torqued fork motion
forcing the torque from the fork
into winds of linguini
stabbing at tortellini
watching the Olympics in a best western high on frequent flier miles
a frequent crier smiles
A Spaghetti Best Western
a best western topped by spaghetti
a Spaghetti test pattern
a spaghetti test pattern
leather and sauce
I am walking back away from it
under sections of the sky constellation segments segmenting
stars and the lines between them
here on the avenues leading up and into the piazzas
heavenly bodies like streelight pearls
towards a palazzo style flat iron decked out with loggia
its paths crisscrossed by a trolley line
I am walking back and away from it back and away form it
here on the streets of Torino
and then again on the streets of New York
A Spaghetti Chest western
the Venus de Milo’s torso
rendered in Yves Klein blue
with a Dalian chest of drawers built in
brought out
and inside
plastic figurines playing out the title
financial surrealists take the train
cowboys on horseback shooting after
a toy train with baseball pitchers atop
financial surrealist in the passenger windows
financial surrealists took the train
and surmounting the colored beauties head an downturned mound of polyresinate
spaghetti
It’s a psghetti Chest Western
and everbody is invited inside
Spaghetti test pattern
in a spaghetti breast western
the chest drawers are open and everybody is invited in
lobsters and leather –leather and sauce
a new furry lobster
found in Indonesia
in the waters off Indonesia
a furry langosto
A spaghetti breast western
the chest drawers are open
the woman in purple she is in Yves Klein blue
she has golden hair a wig
and then black and white stripes ala Michael Keaton
in “Beetlejuice”
Metal toy partners saddle up to draw
at high noon in this best spaghetti western
painters who worship chroma
come out of their coma
packing pistols
in this videodroma
French kissters look on
the surrealist reality group is right nearby
like a sidearm
the charterhouse of parmesan
all the onlookers including this narrator
and hanging around
hanging out
and hanging on
the Last sufferer
the last supper
the last supperer
who should we cast as the painter
and as Christ and as pilot
and mary magdelene in the shadows
after we come down off our DaVinci cloud
should it be like pop painters like English or Kostabi
and the final meal should be placed
in the infernal McDonald’s
in Milano’s galleria
what is on the table spread fury langosto
and the venus demilo with spaghetti hair
on the lobster phone
inner perimeter café casa Armani
while the orange city streetcar winds it way clockwise a few blocks away
the blue shirted waitstaff
serve juicy red cocktails and plates of hor d’oeurves
as a video shower of fire fades into blue water
and the next drink you should order is turquoise
Trussardi alla scala
inner perimeter casa Armani cafe
the Last sufferer
the last supper
the last supperer
who should we cast as the painter
and as Christ and as pilot
and mary magdelene in the shadows
after we come down off our DaVinci cloud
should it be like pop painters like English or Kostabi
and the final meal should be placed
in the infernal McDonald’s
in Milano’s galleria
what is on the table spread fury langosto
and the venus demilo with spaghetti hair
on the lobster phone
inner perimeter casa Armani cafe
Trussardi alla scala
In a distinct neighborhood of Milan
a few blocks from the main train station
a small church
a Japanese restaurant which serves sushi platters on boats
black in the night
a movie theater
with an exterior of blue
with colored pennants attached to the walls
on the viale Tunisia
an erotica store with a long legged clerk
maybe she was the owner seen from afar
a studded leather mask in the window
Tiki lounge furniture outside a nightclub
piled up and sometimes used by the homeless
In this chest western
the buildings of the ghost town
have painted on carved out breast doors
and at high noon through the dust bowls
a moose walks by
If in as in a spaghetti western is to have
Italian food in Western
New York
or for an Italian to have Italian food
in Western New York
Desilu Desilu Desilu
I love I love I love Moosie!
the maid near the maid of the mist
did not make up my bed
before I made it to Niagara the Falls
with water churning as if to have one make in their pants
the maid of the mist
one cannot resist
Italians in Western New York
dine in the Italian Fisherman
near where the fishermen fish
back flips by cartwheeling clowns at the closing ceremonies of the winter Olympics
this is on Sunday and carnevale starts on Tuesday
release the ducks
the celebration was more tempered last year in your dreams
as they switched to a German
things are bound to be more festive this time
Late in the evening
at the self-watering mammary gland
near a Banca Intesa branch
late in the evening
at a self-watering
terrazzo mammary gland
across from the café in the Giardinii
between brightly colored buildings
the hue of Frutti Di Bosco
gelato
Mangia con telefono
Mangia prosciutto con telefono
una telefono torta con proscuitto
Proscuitto finito! telefono! telefono!
Oh! Sugar rock candy umbrella
even The pina colada was a debutante once
An orange downwards pointing submersible container
on and in active use off
of a giant white and blue
tractor trailer carrying freighter
smoke rings of Audi
sailboats are drips of white in the sea
such clean legs
such clean flesh
a smile still beckons a smile
between generations
yet awash
in the dazzle of youth
Oh! sugar rock candy
Carmen Miranda in a tinged cream umbrella
even the pina colada was a debutate once
How far is the Dalmatian from the toast?
A one man noise factory
unwraps his food
while blasting his personal listening device
pushing and pursing his lips for a muscular chew
in the sala di’aspetto
where one sits while one waits for one’s train to pull onto its track
when one sit or sits and reads when one has nothing other to do
Mestre laundromat sunburst mural explosion
broken window shattered glass in the night vacancy
in the day overcrowded
now we have waited to dine in the seafood restraurant across from the art movie cine
where it is run by three hefty brothers and their mother
and two of the others other then the mother are present tonight
on the wall hangs a group photo and who do you think will bring you your risotto
it will be one of the two brothers who are other- other than their mother
is is down the block with the third right now at home brother
while the poet has mixed grill with a group of seafood lovers
Il Vero e Il Falso
the real thing or a fake
yes it a real Fernando Botero
the guard finazia hosts this informative exhibit
so you can tell the difference between a genuine Rolex and the fascimillie
or the same for gucci
Il vero e il falso
and yes it is a real Botero
where does the day go
over to the aqvarium
where hermaphrodite sealife
is on view self impregnaniting egg droppers
and species which die after reproduzione
the real or the fake one
and yes it’s a real Botero
tre colori a three color printing offered by a printer in Mestre
tre colori a restaurant with three canopies red, green, and white
on west 47th street in New York
tre colori the three colors of the Italian flag
the boot of Italy is iconic
while the mass of China is not
in a store in mall an optically active wall relief
in the shape of the nation state
and hermaphrodite models
descend down into the sea laying eggs
in the act of reproducition
before tearing each other to death
Now we turn to see the designer’s vision
Now we turn to see the designer’s visions
Now we turn to see the designer’s visions
Valentino the actor’s funeral was a silent affair
Valentino the courtier’s forty fifth anniversary celebration
of his work in the design sphere was replete with a retrospective
of the dresses he did including a a bevy of mannequins on a staircase
without a balcony on display at the ara pacis in Rome
and in party in Cinese at the Villa Borghese
Sitting in a racing suit by dainese
in the outlet mall in Italy
if only for in the meantime imaginarily
fashion discounts at store on the outskirts of major cities
sometimes looking like fascimille villages done up for the red cross
by the concentration camp supervising nazis
Processed prosciutto prostituted prosecuted prosciutted
The pink rosy swirl of a Venetian chocolate sphere
unscrambled to present not a portrait but a sccene
off of the vaporetto passenger station San Toma
and towards the pensione here to stay all the way upstairs
the meaning in the late evening remained to be disambiguated
this poem could have stayed where as it were in Mestre
where a useless upgrade brought the metal curtain down
on that experience and led to a new suitcase without wheels
and then one with- so it will be off to the chocaltiere in
San Toma ata later date once again
A dream about Isabella Rossellini
who is sitting on a television sound stage
talking and I approach her “I know your nephew Tommasso”
I say – I used to work with him (as a tour guide)
his email is trossellini@wesleyan.edu but now he is in Italy
he is your twin sister Ingrid’s son
she is your twin sister
he was hanging with me when she kicked him out
all of this only part did I say
and then I realize that she was inside of a tv screen all the time
Lead us into temptation
do lead us into temptation
but not all of the time
Pound’s Cantos
Cants Pantos
Cants Poundos
print it on a Pound note
“subtle innuendo’s follow
must be something inside….”
the mall poem
Cockfosters young men with prominent phallic protusions in pantalone and pantalone di cavali
parade and posture during the mall palio like roosters
they abound in the surround in all that the cock-fosters in the piazza del palio here
Become an ambassador
of the lifestyle afforded
by the Italian Hotel Shopping Mall Poen
where there are cameo appearances
and appearances by cameos
A woman in purpling pink
atop the white field of a sun dress
has donned ornamental Bvglvari sunglasses
and a necklace in the shape of a small lantern which is colored dark metallic pink
with baubles set inside purple and burgundy red
a deep purple rock atop a ring upon her finger
and a gold and diamond bracelet clasp
featuring lions or dragons upon her wrist
gets on the train in Venezia Santa Lucia
and departs (partenze) in Vincenza
I did something in Venice
I did something else
It rings to Abba’s Mama Mia
the downloadable ring-tone for the cell-phone
into the whole song but not for long
the woman opens up the flip-phone
and says “Mama” with emphasis right after
the last heard “Mama Mia” from the song
now we realize it might only ring mama mia
when mama is the caller
and the caller id might read with her phone number
as on comes the song
Engrosso
Haydn concert in the Galleria
the reflecticve disk overhead
Mozart
“That Fuller Guys” tetrahedron
Robert Indiana’s “Nonending nonagon”
upon the field of a Missoni silk sweater
a polygonal
as if hurled palio flags coming back round together
into a shield
at the breast plate and the abdomen
of a fashionable man
ov olives evolve
love ottagano
Bocce bowling for balls
Take an object and project
a plastic object
bought not necessarily but perhaps in a set
A Dainese racing leather clad motorcycle race
a bright night light hooked into an outlet
is an object which projects
The Spaghetti Museum of Fine Pasta
the knife engaged with the fork
the fork engaged with the knife
in a pas de deux
with the polyresinous noodles
uprising
corten steel tortellini
and later Rosentwists
Our brand new roof Gorgon is now open!
no,
Gabriella does not want to go shopping (with you (me)) in Italy
This poem is not a consumate well-studied phony
Though you can study well being a phony
there is the real thing and there is the phoney
which might leave you outside in the rain screaming forgery
on course but what are you doing outside in the rain
pondering il vero e il falso
il natura di Fraudolenti
outside in the rain
