hic ogigia: maggio 2008

sometimes right before sleeping some images get into my mind, as in a loop.
the other night, i turned off the light and i could recall the sensation of leaping over a fence, and since it was such a nice feeling i tried to repeat it in my mind as one of those martin arnold's videos.
i knew where that fence was. it was in germany, kassel precisely. i lived there for a month in 1999. the family that was hosting me didn t have and extra key for the gate but the fence wasn t much high so each time i got back home i d put my right foot on the concrete basement and, lead by the rotation of my left leg, easily reached the inside of the garden. the house was right outside the schwarzwald:
that smell and that clearness of the aether still flood my heart.

yesterday, while exiting the school for lunchbreak, something catches the attention of my periferical sight. on the sidewalk facing palazzo brera there s always a man selling all kinds of stuff, often works of students he finds inside the academy, which - if they re lucky - would have to buy back.
passing by very quickly, willing for the most immediate commestible item, it felt like someone knocked on my shoulder. i turned back and watched on the ground. among all the merchandise i see this disordered pile of old postcards dominated by this black and white sumptuous reproduction of the Herkules with his Kaskaden, the bizarre-looking castle, icon of the above-mentioned town. i didn t realize suddenly. i wanted to buy it but i didn t have coins (i didn t trust him to change) so i told him i would have come back later. in the meantime while i was waiting on a huge line for the cheapest food (chinese) around there, i made the connection with the half/dream of the night before. i was a bit shocked, i had to buy that picture. but later it started to rain, and i always kind of envy these people selling stuff or reading hands on the street because their work depends on the weather, and i think this gives you a vision of life a bit different and also gives you a certain kind of wisdom.
this to say i couldn t find him.

today i went looking for him. it took me like 20 minutes to find that postcard again among the others. there were also more about kassel and about other northern cities which i really liked so i bought around 20 of them. at home, looking carefully i find that two were written. one was among the ones about kassel. the other was from england. both show two handwritings: one - female - in german, and the other - male - in english. i think it s possible that the two protagonists were on their honeymoon because they both call the recipient "mother" (muttilein/ mom). what surprised me the most though it s the tone of the girl (reni?) writing to her mother in such a sweet (and a bit childish) way. she never mentions a father. i suppose that maybe she is going to live with her john in england and probably will no longer live with her mother again. maybe that s why she misses her so much and gets all emotional. maybe she lived in a really nice country house with her caring mom and some animals, next to the forest. maybe she had a fence aroud her house. who knows.

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