Horn noise / wakes me up / I look out to the balcony.
Car / double-parked / it blocks the passage.
Double-breasted man / is in hurry / honks.
Woman in her forties / exits from the Post Office / breathless.
One hand holds the purse / the other hand squeezes bulletins to pay / it digs.
She searches for the keys / double parked car.
Keep honking / double-breasted man.
She moves the car / I say “I can’t believe it!”
Elderly-like comment / I get worried / I look around:
opposite building / my same floor / a woman in the balcony. She shakes her head / white / dissent.
She is watching too / she also disapproves.
I start to worry / really.
I try not to think about it.
I look away / It’s February / but my plants are blooming.
I count the buds / one, two, three …
A flower has blossomed!
It’s white / pure / snow.
I approach / I smell it: / it’s bird turd.
Fuckin’ bird / it shit on my plants.
I get angry / then I think over it / I tell myself:
“It’s just bird shit
but as long as I think it is a winter flower,
it is the most beautiful thing in the world.”
Poem by Stefano Carderi
Read in Italian: