Di Vinci Airport, Roma July 1996 Poem by K Carlton Johnson

Sitting in a leather seat,
It is two in the morning
The television is blaring
Entertaining those who wait.

The Carbinieri have already checked passports
Perhaps there is a problem
Perhaps this is normal procedure.
The hour bends the head
And I sleep amidst the luggage
My belongings holding me
Like the Arab women, to my left
With two small sons.

Awakened by music
The television has Leonard Bernstein
Giving a lecture in a tight black suit,
Aaron Copeland is conducting, Appalachian Spring,
Both men are now dead.
In Rome, they are still on the television.