ROME
I
xocolātl
xocolātl
xocolātl
xocolātl
xocolātl
xocolātl
xocolātl
xocolātl
xocolātl
xocolātl
xocolātl
xocolātl
Fierce, feathered crotalus Queztalcoatl loves xocolātl
the food of the gods (Theobroma cacao)
Mokaya to Mocha
heart to heart
in humid jungles west of here…
Queztalcoatl, fierce, feathered crotalus,
quaffs cacahuatl
Olmec, Maya, Aztec
…bitter are the seeds encased
Sacred Heart
This is my body
This is my blood
hocus-pocus
bitter water
cacao
xocolātl xocolātl xocolātl
Edenic susurration
[Let us observe a moment of silence at the Rome Stock Exchange]
II
The Eclipse
Danza nera
In bocca al lupo
Edenic susurration
Cacao y xocolātl.
Xocolātl y cacao.
quiquiriquí
chicchirichi cocorocó κικιρίκου
cocorico Kikeriki
kukuryku quiquiriquí
chicchirichi
Cacao y xocolātl.
Xocolātl y cacao.
Il grande Quetzalcoatl dice: ca-cacao.
Il grande Moctezuma dice: co-cocoa.
Cacao y xocolātl.
Xocolātl y cacao.
Cacao y xocolātl.
Xocolātl y cacao.
Il grande Quetzalcoatl dice: ca-cacao.
Il grande Moctezuma dice: co-cocoa.
Cacao y xocolātl.
Xocolātl y cacao.
È la danza nera di Vittoria, ooh!
Cacao y xocolātl.
Xocolātl y cacao.
Cacao y xocolātl.
Xocolātl y cacao.
III
The Eclipse
A gift from Piero to Vittoria
[empty box of chocolates]
IV
Before Noon Tomorrow
AMOR ROMA
La puttana Mara, you did a striptease for me once. Madonna!
cras cras cras
Tomorrow you do a striptease for me eternally captured on film prêt-à-porter
seduction for a bit or bite or sip of xocolātl in the eternal city
After all what are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice
And everything nice
Katya loves her chocolates. The stuff that chocolate dreams are made on:
chocolate and jalapeño
cacahuatl
The melting
chocolate palace
of Prince Pondicherry
a Trastevere o sul Gianicolo
as Willie Wonka wanked (puttana - cherry)
sits up the fudge mountain inside the factory up there
as Willie Wonka woke, wanked, and walked way up where
one sees the Chocolate River of (Caesar) Augustus Gloop and the Oompa-Loompas
and Anna Magnani yells at Federico Fellini to leave her alone, to go home, to get out of here.
Did the Domus Transitoria too melt in the great fire? I too have seen the Colosseum cast in chocolate.
amore e Roma
amore e aroma a Roma
V
Pontifex Maximus
Des pontifes païens aux pontifes chrétiens
Genevieve’s Home Made Chocolates of Garfield, New Jersey, United States of America, presented Pope John Paul II with chocolates from their shop (Papieskie czekoladki) on his pontifical visit to New Jersey in October 1995.
A tale in the Iguvine Tablets, as if inscribed on milk chocolate panels, predicts that the lupa Capitolina will be the ancestor of the lupo di Gubbio.
Pot number one of the Duenos inscription kernos
(righted to left)
a. IOVESATDEIVOSQOIMEDMITATNEITEDENDOCOSMISVIRCOSIED
b. iouesāt deivos qoi mēd mitāt, nei tēd endō cosmis vircō siēd
c. Iurat deos qui me mittit, ni [erga te] comis virgo sit
d. ‘The person who sends me prays to the gods, lest the girl be not kind towards thee’
VI
Lamb of God
Dolly the Sheep [her/she] (July 5, 1996 – February 14, 2003) had three mothers.
Παναγιώτης
Madonna!
Human Cloning Is Underway in Italy
BY CBSNEWS.COM STAFF CBSNEWS.COM STAFF
JANUARY 31, 2002 / 8:41 AM / CBS
A scientific and social uproar is not slowing an attempt to clone a human being. In Rome, Italy, this morning, the project leader spoke of the narrowed field of candidates in line to produce the first cloned baby.
Italian fertility specialist Dr. Severino Antinori confirmed today in Rome that he would go ahead with attempts to clone a human being. Antinori previously created a sensation when he used standard techniques to allow a 62-year-old woman to have a baby. Now, he says, hundreds of infertile couples--"who want to become father and mother, to create a new human life," says Antinori--have asked him to produce a cloned baby.
Antinori--who is collaborating with fertility specialist Panos Zavos, who is from Lexington, Kentucky--plans to implant the DNA from an adult's cell into a stripped-down egg from a woman.
VII
xocolātl
xocolātl
xocolātl
xocolātl
xocolātl
xocolātl
xocolātl
Chocolate for the Seven Hills Basilica di Santa Maria
in Cosmedin la Bocca della Verità O to tell the truth I long for…
Wenn ich mir was wünschen dürfte chocolate lambs [Hershey] for Easter
caffè mocha on the Via Veneto moccacino cacahuatl xocolātl
The chocolate skull of Saint Valentine in the
Basilica di Santa Maria in Cosmedin
the Sacred Heart of Dolly dead on Saint Valentine’s Day
Send me a box of chocolates for my little girl.
Night, porter. See you tomorrow.
132 Hackensack Street
Wood-Ridge, NJ 07075
jnjarthouse@yahoo.com
Monday, March 20, 2017
Richard Linklater
1901 East 51st Street
Austin, TX 78723
Dear Mr. Linklater,
If you are considering a fourth film in the Before series, I would like to propose Before Noon, to be set in Rome, Italy. I like the significance of Before Sunrise set in Vienna (neurosis, mysticism), Before Sunset set in Paris (birth of Modernism), and Before Midnight set in Greece (Classicism). Rome, the Eternal City, would be a great place to continue the series. Now in their 50s, Jesse and Céline could wake up and experience a real-time drama played out before “high noon”, rekindling their love and passion with Céline performing a striptease like Mara (Sophia Loren) in Vittorio de Sica’s Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (Ieri, oggi, domani, 1963), reprised by Sophia Loren as Isabella de la Fontaine in Robert Altman’s Prêt-à-Porter (Ready to Wear, 1994). This is just a thought.
I should provide an introduction. I am the Director of the Oradell Public Library in Bergen County, New Jersey, very close to Manhattan, New York, and I am one of the moderators of the Library’s IFC Film Club, “IFC” standing for Independent * Foreign * Classic. Last month we had a lively discussion of your Dazed and Confused, clearly a contemporary classic.
I am also a poet, writer, and performer with a number of books out. In fact, tonight, the Friends of the Library are holding a reception for my latest book, Picture This: For Your Eyes and Ears (Loveland, Ohio : Dos Madres Press, 2016), a collection of poems on art, photography, film, and art history. One project that I have been working on for about thirteen years (I procrastinate on literary projects) is a series of poems on the Italian nougat candy torrone; every year for Christmas my Italian aunt gives me a box or two, and one year, years ago, the box had six different flavors of torrone, each with a flavor associated with a city in Italy: Lemons : Naples; Almonds : Venice; Coffee: Florence; Hazelnuts : Milan; Coconuts : Pisa; and Chocolate : Rome. I have written a sequence of introductory poems and the first four flavor/city poems and had them published in anthologies and journals. I am at work on “Coconuts” and ruminating on “Chocolate”. Both seem daunting. Anyhow, in the arrangement of the poems for a future book, I play off among other conceits de Sica’s Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (Ieri, oggi, domani).
I would love to meet you one day; for now, please accept my humble suggestion.
Sincerely,
John J. Trause
John J. Trause
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