Author Archives: Erika Bizzarri

June 14th, 1994 Upupa – hoopoe bird. A flash of orange barred with brown and beige darts up from the road. Disturbed but not afraid. A sudden glimpse of joy, untamed and fearless. Too fearless, for now I find you amongst the rocks and weeds cradling the scraggly rosemary outside my door. I pick youContinue reading “Upupa”

I have a dog. Supposedly she was a guard dog. It started when they broke into the house – it was mid morning and I had gone with my friend to get some supplies at the supermarket in the valley. Coming back, I didn’t notice anything right away but when I tried to open andContinue reading “Teah”

We are all kaleidoscopes, cubist compositions, the sum of our reflections in the eyes of others. We are as others see us. Instant snapshots. Time exposures. Double exposures. All – and none – not one but all. Reflections in the eye of a passerby, reflections in the inner eye of those who know us. StillContinue reading “Kaleidoscopes”

June 11th, 2021 A bit over a year ago, I walked the streets of Orvieto and glass doors slid open as I passed, to let in —ghosts of the years before. Outside, tables were stacked up, or were simply non-existent. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Now glass doors still slide openContinue reading “Then and Now”

Four boots set on the cobblestones Outside the shoemaker’s shop. Four boots turned into flower pots. A small shop, full of shoes, piled up everywhere. Boots, sandals, ballerinas, heels, for dancing, or for walking. In the back a woman, hair pulled back, attaching the sole of a well-worn shoe. Years ago, she said, her father died.Continue reading “Flower Pot Shoes”

I don’t go there any more. Sure, it was cheap and the location handy, but the food was never very good. I guess I only went because of Belle. And Belle isn’t there any more. Where is she now? Nobody seems to know. She’s just gone. The day I first happened to wander in itContinue reading “The Coffee Pot”

A PAIR OF WORN-OUT SHOES They were sitting on the windowsill in the old house. Honey colored, rather battered, worn-down heels. Soft, misshapen. One lace skipping an eyehole. Still she remembered them as comfortable which was what she now needed in a shoe. A day or two they would still serve her to walk alongContinue reading “Shoes”

The first thing you see when you come in the side door of my house in the country is the madia. A waist-high box, over a meter long, it’s more elegant than the usual kitchen type for beading frames the front panel and the drawer at the bottom. The hinged top can be raised, revealingContinue reading “Madia”

Alone. I draw the curtains to shut out the light of a night that refuses to be night. I’ll wake up to what might still be night, or dawn, with time, the hours and the days, always the same.  Alone in the country. The night is black. No city lights. No distant mountains. Just theContinue reading “Nostalgia”

ION BUCUR A poet I was told you are a poet. A poet slowly fading away in a clinic in Rome. But that was years ago, in 1941 or perhaps 1954.  Your portrait, swiftly drawn with brush and ink,  speaks to me out of the past  – and I would surely have fallen in love with you –Continue reading “Ion Bucur”

The old address book seems to be full. We did once use address books Written on paper, adding and crossing out Our daily contacts. A Royal Horticultural Address Book With a rock rose on the cover. Year after year, names added, names removed. Fingermarks on the cover Cleaned with a soft eraser more than onceContinue reading “Address Book”

A chip-carved wooden box, a pin with one blue stone, gifts to hold and touch, evoking a name, a time, a feeling. Other more ephemeral gifts, a poem, a word, a gesture, somehow exquisitely private, live on in memory alone. This is for you, he said, handing me half of his orange. More could notContinue reading “Gifts”

We’re on a boat in a pond. My father and me. He says I have to learn to swim and pushes me over the side into the water.  (He was like that. My aunt, his sister, remembers how he made her jump off a high diving board, or maybe pushed her,  even though she wasContinue reading “Virtual Photos III”

My basil seedlings Lie askew Their spindly thread-like stems White against the moist black earth Dislodged Disturbed By something. The stick I poke into the pot Grazes A speckled yellowish mound. Some kind of fungus? Warily I brush away more earth. Suddenly Two great dark hooded eyes Are blinking in the light. A golden toadContinue reading “Golden Toad”

Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941. WW II, 1939-45. Fast forward and there I am at 16, walking to Bradford Junior College from high school, along the bridge across the Merrimac River.  (I’ll then go home with my father after he’s finished teaching.) There we are marching down the main street of Haverhill, all in whiteContinue reading “Virtual Photos II”

6 Feb. 2017 Interlude  I’m sitting at my desk, reading Berger. A curious tickle on my wrist distracts me from the page. Perched on my cuff is a small shield-shaped insect – wonder where he came from – his long feelers sounding the terrain. He’s brown, actually quite handsome, but I deem it best toContinue reading “Interlude”

On seeing a bat (May 1993?) Feb. 3, 2001 The shadows in the room were layered Like watercolor washes From pale grey to almost black. A flutter – not heard – but seen. The darkness shivered and unloosed a fragment of the deepest shade. It darted silently from left to right in swooping arcs thenContinue reading “Bats”

Apartment for Rent: I had been away almost a year and now needed a place to live. I was outstaying my welcome with a college girfriend and evidently the gods were in my favor. At the time East 71st St. between 1st and 2nd Avenue, with its blind windows barricaded behind iron fire escapes andContinue reading “From California to Italy and back to NYC”