Auguri!

a sign under the light — which sounds so divine

if I don’t add it’s a neon on the street of a small northern Italian town

covered in snow surrounded by mountains

It was the first thing I saw upon arriving

Auguri!? I asked

to learn its meaning and whether I read it right

I kept hearing it exchanged as a greeting, as a blessing, as a toast

and all these contexts and all the white snow

flakes falling around it like a magical dust

and all the time I spent looking at it from the window

invited me into the comfort of

cultural rituals, sounds we make to pass on kindness

to reassure one another

that we know that to wish good things to our fellow humans

is really, what keeps this earth spinning

so Happy New Year, happy turn of the earth’s orbit around the sun

Auguri! I wish you well!