-

One day I'll have a house
With tall, white walls,
Windows up to the ceilings...
And film posters on the walls,
All my favorite films -
Some like it hot
And Frances Ha
And La La Land
And Le notti di Cabiria...

-

I was thirteen when I decided
I would live my life as a character
From a French film.

Thought, pleasure and wine
Are all that matter to me.

-

I'll spend my summers drinking gin,
Listening to Brahms,
Waiting tables,
And writing bad poetry.

Summers are for living.
Winter is for death.

-

You smiled.
- Are you happy?
You stood,
Waiting for me to look away.

I didn't know then -
Some smiles were "I've missed you!"
Not "I'm happy".

-

I had stopped writing
To live what I'd written.

-

Our bodies turned into liquid
Flowing down the veins,
Composed of cello concertos
And gin.

And we drank each-other into extinction.

-

Look!
I write down passages
from my favorite books,
Hoping to invite them
into my life.

-

May be stars would shine brighter,
If they lived closer to each-other...

And we'd be in the universe
Of thousand suns!

Your skin would seem darker,
Your taste would be sweet
And no one would matter
And we would repeat
Whatever we longed for,
Whatever we did
When cherries grew darker,
And deeper, and sweet.

But stars don't shine brighter.

-

When I stop,
Streets stop.

When I walk,
Streets walk backwards.

And I imagine passing myself,
As others have and will.

What if I were the "other"?
Would I still be a stranger?

-

For the first time in my life,
Can I be a child to be taken care of,
Not cast away?!

-

Do you remember Paris?
Gare de l'est?
Gare du Lyon?

As we said goodbye,
you thought you'd have me forever.
As we said goodbye,
I knew we lost each-other.

Do you remember Paris?
Gare du Lyon?
Gre de l'est?

-

I only believed in goodbyes.
And you believed in hellos.
I am sorry.
I am.

-

You were sudden
And so scary,
Like a movement
In a room full of sleep.

-

When you take off the lid,
I pour off like coffee.
I'm not a green tea.
I'm not soothing.
I'm not comforting.
I give goosebumps and jitters.
I'm black.
And I'm strong.
I'm icy.
I'm hot.
And I leave marks.
I leave stains.
And I enter you,
Like consciousness enters the sleep.

I pour off like coffee,
When you take off the lid.

-

I open my eyes
And the first thing I see,
Isn't the first thing
That comes to my mind.

I carry my imagination
into and beyond my nights.
I could be one of those,
frightened and frightening nocturnal animals,
lacking sleep and company of us.

I open my eyes
And the first thing I see,
Isn't the first thing
That comes to my mind.

-

New York is a wild animal
And it has many ways of attacking and scarring people.

But you get to decide
What kind of scar you want to wear.
It could be scratches of Jazz fingers on your back;
A burn, of kiss of luxury, and lust on your neck;
Or a rash of melancholy and nostalgia;
Open cuts of self-hate;
Bruises of fatigue and indifference...

But we leave our safe cages every morning,
hunting the beast.