Lucca

A grace of green, the underleaf
of olive, the birdsong’s
cradling. It’s as though

something in us already knows
these blossomed streets,
her plane trees’ dappling,

the unfolding light
as children play hide-and-seek
beyond the church.

We’ve found a place with
lanes that curve, with circling walls,
and a hidden piazza at the heart.

O mio babbino caro.
Ours is the window
of music that comes despite

death’s green cave.
In this fleeting paradise,
a shop door has opened

and Puccini soars
above baskets of artichokes
and blood oranges.

Annie Deppe, author of Sitting in the Sky, lives in Falmore, County Donegal, Ireland.