She says that with her new CI
the water in the reverse osmosis machine
sounds strangely like a fountain.
I am tempted to tell her to just
close her eyes and imagine
for a moment we are back
in Rome, standing in front,
of the Trevi Fountain, hearing
the Euro coins plunk down in the water
to the joyful chortles of the tourists
who perpetually gather because
that is what you do in Rome, just
as you visit the Forum, the Colosseum,
and climb the Spanish Steps
for no reason other than to say
you did so, careful to take
a picture at both top and bottom
as if that will be the critical
piece of evidence of your visit.
I want to tell her this, but
in the time it takes to formulate
these memories, to try and find
the few words of Italian we learned,
the machine signals that it
is done and we both move on
to the next sound she
has never heard before.