http://www.auroraghielmini.com/illustrazione/the-baron-in-the-trees/

http://www.highdesertgallery.info/2007/07/index.html

The Baron in the Trees
(after Calvino)

Cosimo is up a tree
living among oaks, eucalpytus,
copper beeches and sweet chestnuts

the black of the Spanish contingent
hanging over boughs like so many Goyescas

Minutes turn to years;
inventive, he builds tree-houses,
stationed at intervals in the woods

Reaching for the sweetest apple, his piccolo
in the garden below

Apples on his breath, sinewy green hands.


The Baron in the Trees
(after Italo Calvino)


Cosimo is up a tree living among oaks,
chestnuts, copper beeches, building
tree-houses, minutes turn to years.

What does he do all day?
He reads and he reads; there's a library
of slim volumes among the leaves.

The Spanish contingent hang over boughs
like so many Goyescas, a dark brooding
presence, when did they appear?

Now, there's romantic love, a girl!
Sometimes, the sweetest apple
is on the furthest branch.

He reaches out for his piccolo
in the garden below who is so lovely
like a young pear tree from France.