SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION

Artist unknown

SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION

Only six people, it is said

separate any person from another

anywhere on this earth.

I want to believe that,

I want to believe

with just six connections

I could know an Eskimo,

an African tribesman,

a mother in Iraq.

I want to believe it would take

only six people to reconnect

with a gypsy I once saw,

the woman in cold rain

on the steps of the Duomo

in Florence, Italy. I would find her

again, her feet knobby and bare,

her black hair tangled in dusty braids.

Begging, she would whisper again

for my bambino, please,

for my bambino

and this time

I would take her chapped, brown hand,

place lira in it, close

her fingers around the bills.

This time I would get it right,

not turn aside

as her sleeve brushed my coat.

This time my shame

would not outweigh hers.

- Sharon Auberle

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In going through old writings of mine, in preparation for a book of collected poems, I came across this favorite, previously published in The Peninsula Pulse.