- What is unique? -

On a plain, predictable day,
he sat drinking espresso
in Piazza del Perdono.

He felt old and abandoned,
grey as one of those pigeons;
there were so many around,
yet who would notice:
they all looked alike.

For a second,
he closed his eyes,
disappointed,
not so perfect,
NOT UNIQUE.

He bought the usual newspaper,
knowing that he would not read it
and took a walk in the cold,
climbed up the stairs
to Via del Campo Fiorito.

There she was,
sitting on an old wall,
dreaming, waiting
for the snow to fall.

When the first snowflake
touched her freckled skin,
quickly melting on her chin,
she noticed him
and smiled.

He thought of her - serene -
sitting in the middle of a cloud,
at the heart of the process
where water vapor condenses
directly into ice.

He smiled too.
She said:

"Never in the history of the planet
were there two identical snowflakes;
with hundreds of separate features
in a crystal,
each growing differently
and in different places
how could they ever be alike?"

That is how he knew
that for her he could be
FOREVER UNIQUE.