tous les chemins mènent à rome

tutte strade

i met an old italian man once

in jerusalem

outside of the east wall

of the old city

across from the mount of olives

atop some moslem graves

he asked me

where damascus gate was

so i told him

pointed

and joked around a bit

telling him

"it's on the left"

(which is a joke because 

it could only have been

...on the left)

he laughed

i laughed

we talked a little

telling each other where we were from

our conversation tapered off

and before we parted

never to see each other

ever again

he looked at me

and told me

"all roads lead to rome."

with a smile

and smile induced squinty eyes

and i smiled too.

dormir dans la journée

sleeping during the day

i came 

halfway across the world

to get away from you. 

to give you all the space you need.

all the time you need.

and now i have a

hard time

sleeping at night

sometimes. 

so i end up

sleeping during the day

which comforts me a little,

knowing that i'm sleeping

at the same time you are.

pièces de monnaie de poche

pocket change

i'll admit it.

i looked pretty ridiculous - 

sitting there on my bed

counting out coins

with forty or fifty bucks in quarters and dimes

sectioned off in little quartets or groups of ten

(which are not dectets)

in lines on the comforter in front of me.

it wasn't much.

not even a full tank of gas

at the time.

my dad came in, 

chuckled

and asked with a bit of a smile:

"you realize what you're doing, right?"

"yeah."

i realized what i was doing.

i was counting out pocket change

and using it for gas to drive across the country -

that

is what i was doing.

and it looked ridiculous 

because it was.

but that's not enough

to stop me, dear.