I was on my daily walk with my dog when
he pulled hard to greed another dog. I always let him decide who he likes to
meet.
It was an old dog, sitting at the feet
of an old man sitting on a bench.
“Good morning” I said and introduced
ourselves.
“It is always a good morning when I can
still be out with Florence” he replied.
By now, Ziggy was gently licking Florence’s
face.
“Lovely” the old man said, “reminds me
of days when I was young and wild”
And we started chatting knowing that our
dogs would not want us to pull them apart.
From his careful choice of words and the
optimism that comes with age, I assumed he was well read. So I asked him what
he once did.
“I taught literature, even when students
did not want to learn.”
I told him I had many of these
experiences.
“You like poetry?” he asked.
And when I shared my love for words,
spoken or otherwise, he turned to Florence with a smile:
“Flo, go ahead and recite a few lines
from Dylan Thomas.”
Then, with a pensive posture he added:
“She is busy with Ziggy, I will refresh
your memory myself”
And, just after sunrise, sitting on a
public bench in a cowboy town five-thousand feet above sea level, the old man
nostalgically started:
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieve it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night
“I was wild once, you know. Now Flo is
15 years old and I am five times older than her. It is good to meet someone who
likes poetry.”
… I thought about him during the one
hour walk. And a bit about Flo. Then, after giving Ziggy his breakfast, I searched
for a poem I had read by Ribka Sibhatu, a contemporary Italian poet, entitled Parola.
The last stanza is my favorite
Parla
parole ce
emanano
profumo
e
portano l’animo
nel tempo e nello
spazio.
(Speak words
that emit a fragrance
and carry the soul
through time and through space)
I hope to see the old man
again.
About the photo: I took this in Barcelona. It seemed unlikely that I would see a man, well dressed, reading an Agatha Christie book, siting on the boardwalk, next to his old dog
May 10, 2023
© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2023
