A face like an open page painted inside a secret microcosm and
Corrugated like a furrow tread by cattle lightly.
His forehead wrinkled by thoughts scattered in the mud of his nomad camp.
There’s bad blood between the camp and the locals.
They’re always shouting after them that
They smell and steal and mistreat children.
The Melquiades of Villa Gordiani hears this and
Smiles on top of all that human wrath.
Because there’s nothing else left for him to do.
Not yesterday not today.
He wants to invite them to hear his how his people sing,
Every last one.
All that ire against the whole world would pass if only
They’d dance two steps with his people.
Yesterday and today.
It would be better for them all because as a great writer said in each of us there’s
A bit of gypsy, and it’s surely not the worst part.
The old Melquiades of Villa Gordiani hears the music from the camp and grins
That’s just the way it is, he thinks.
He shuts his eyes and dreams a grand party for all.
Imagination is the bread of the people of his camp.
One could live by that alone.
The sunset enters the camp like a thief.
Purple like the lips of his grandchild.
The Melquiades of Villa Gordani falls asleep thinking of the party
For all, every last one.
Sarah Zuhra Lukanic was born in Spalato (Croatia) in July, 1960. After high school she got her degree in literature at the University of Fiume, with a final thesis paper on theatre direction. In the same years she worked with the Teatre of Spalato and with several Yugoslavian daily papers. In 1987 she moved to Rome, Italy, where she worked serving in a café for sixteen years. Since June, 2004 she has started writing in Italian. She has been short-listed and won honourable mention in several literary competitions, including the "Premio Umberto Saba-Trieste Scritture di Frontiera 2005" with the short-story collection Ciacole Triestine: In September, 2006 she won the "Premio Giornalistico Letterario Mare Nostrum-Viareggio 2006" with the story collection Rione Kurdistan. Her first novel come out in 2007, Le Lezioni di Selma, published by Libri Bianchi of Milan.