Ode to My Beloved Longtime Companion (for Cat)

Part III: Cat’s Summer of Love

Having never been
on blind dates before,
that is how she  met him
through mutual friends

She a single, independent
young career woman of 26 years,
and he home on military holiday leave
a young soldier of 22 years 

On the occasion of their first date
seeing the movie “Love Story,” a romantic tale
of falling head over heels in love
and the female protagonist falling fatally ill

After falling in love head over heels,
they had to separate while he returned to Italy,
which occasioned long correspondences
and phone calls through military switchboards

Plans were made for an Italian summer rendezvous;
arriving in Rome, he picked her up
in his Triumph TR-4 and together racing around
the city of the Colosseum and Spanish Steps

It was romance on the beaches of Tirrenia
and visiting Pisa, Viareggio, Firenze,
kisses on top of the Leaning Tower,
carefree and innamorato under the Tuscan sun

Meals of  pasta pescotora, gelatin, and cherries
drinking vino, Sambuca,  and cappuccino
al fresco under the sun and moon and stars
on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea 

Eventually fare wells, hugs, tears
she flew back to her home and work
and more waiting and dreaming
of days and nights to come, together, forever

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
October 2019 

Photos by Herb Stone