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***
Tongue-tied in your presence,
All I could mutter was “My Darling…”.
What you exhaled was
“Si, yes, certo”.
One word, with some ornamentation.
“Just trust me”,
And I did it.
That’s when I first thought
Your voice could work for children.
It has its dissonance
And then it has a melody.
It is so eastern and so primal.
The voice to be performed by Mariinsky.
I managed to come back to it
For same reasons
You go back for dinner
Your mother made –
Your presence is like going home.

(Painting ‘Yosef’ by Sara Maino, 2021)