ROME IS ETERNAL by Dean Atta

She said that road was closed

When a car fell through the pavement

Because everyone here knows

Rome is built on many layers

Streets on top of streets, centuries deep

I was half-listening to her but I was also

Checking out a guy in tightly fitting jeans

She said, ‘He’s not gay, he’s just Italian.’

Those telltale signs don’t translate here

Even body language was foreign to me

Back home I can suss men out speedily

With successful subtlety but here in Rome

My gaydar flashed left right everywhere

With many layers of miscommunication

So I turned to my trusty iPhone

For some serious investigation

I log on to Grindr; iPhone gay sex finder

Yep, ‘there’s an app for that’

I didn’t come to Rome for this

Random sex isn’t something that I miss

Almost a year without a one-night stand

This certainly wasn’t planned

But it was a welcome surprise

When he popped up on my iPhone screen

(Location 24 metres away)

My friend who grew up here said

She didn’t know anyone who was gay

Yet for two years this hot gay man

Has lived in the apartment above her

So I guess this guy knows how to

Keep his business undercover

But then came me and my poetry

Shamelessly, I expose late-night iniquity

While my friend slept, up the stairs

I crept to meet this man of mystery

If you’d asked before, I’d’ve said for sure

My days of sleeping around were history

But as he opened his apartment door, what I saw

In his wise eyes made me feel differently

How did I feel such heat for a complete stranger?

At 2 a.m. we meet, discreetly, and I feel no danger

We were smoking a spliff and listening to Radiohead

Next thing we were kissing and I was giving him ____

We had instant rapport, I felt so relaxed

There’s nothing I’d change if I could go back

And when he said he was coming to London

Clapham to be precise, my first thought was

To déjà vu this rendezvous would be nice

To walk on pavements cars don’t fall through

To speak loud and public with body language

But then I thought of why I had done this

And what I wanted to achieve. I had nothing

More to give and nothing I wanted to receive

From this ancient city where new technology

Found a tender moment in close proximity

Because now this night is eternal like Rome

And in this poem I can take Leonardo home.