At the Maison Hannon (for G. C.)

In just twenty seconds and twenty steps, you’ll fall for her. Because at your request for poetry, she’ll recite to you, from unblemished memory, twelve lines of Dante’s “Inferno” in her native Italian as you ascend the gilded staircase together. And by the time you reach the top, you’ll have plunged into her poetic forbear’s despair. For what words could you summon in your language to retrieve your heart from her own?