This is what thunderstorms looks like in Spoleto.

For the older children, like the ones
Awake outside our windows last night,
The highlight of the holiday will come
May 1 at what they call the COLORmob.

Here again, apparently, the object
Is to stay up almost all the night
For music and an extra attraction:
A coat of many colors on everyone.

On occasion, for different reasons and with regard to different persons, Rebecca and I have become aware of illnesses that beset the people in Spoleto we know.

The knowledge establishes a peculiar connection between us and this place: by no means intimate yet, the attachment grows closer with each new filament.

Like today, sadly we are told the reason for the sudden absence of Benito, our next-door neighbor to whom we hardly ever spoke except in passing.

Somewhere in town a notice will be posted in memoriam, while the service set for Monday is too sacred for our feeble salutations to intrude.

One night on the terrazzo, then, we will raise a flute of spirits to the poliziotto, remembering his rye smile at a mistimed buon giorno.