I Will Give You a Rose

Painting by Laura Tedeschi

I will give you a rose

A red rose to paint everything

A rose to comfort your each and every tear

And a rose to show you my love

I will give you a rose

A white rose as if you were my wife

A white rose to help you forget

Each little pain

My name is Antonio and I’m mad

I was born in 1954 and I’ve lived here since I was a baby

I believed I could talk with the devil

So they closed me in a mental home for forty years

I’m writing you this letter because I don’t know how to talk

Forgive the handwriting of a school child

And I’m astonished I’m still feeling emotions

But it’s the fault of my hand that won’t stop shaking

I’m like a piano with a broken key

The dissonant chord of an orchestra of drunks

Day and night seem the same

In the dim light the pierces the opaque glass

I’m still pissing myself because I’m afraid

To the sane, we have always been rubbish

Smelling of piss and sawdust

This is mental illness and there is no cure

I will give you a rose

A red rose to paint everything

A rose to comfort your each and every tear

And a rose to show you my love

I will give you a rose

A white rose as if you were my wife

A white rose to help you forget

Each little pain

Mad people are like question marks with no sentences

Thousands of spaceships that never return home

They are snowmen spread out under the sun

Mad people are messengers of a God that doesn’t want them

I build snow for myself out of polystyrene

My illness is that I’ve been left alone

Now take a telescope and measure the distance

Look between me and you – who is more dangerous?

We loved each other secretly in a hospital ward

Finding a corner that would be ours alone

I remember the few moments when we felt alive

Not like the medical records crammed in the archives

Of all my memories, you’ll be the last to disappear

You were like an angel tied to a radiator

In spite of everything I’m still waiting for you

And when I close my eyes I feel your hands caressing me

I will give you a rose

A red rose to paint everything

A rose to comfort your each and every tear

And a rose to show you my love

I will give you a rose

A white rose as if you were my wife

A white rose to help you forget

Each little pain

My name is Antonio and I’m on the roof

Dear Margherita, I’ve waited for you for 20 years

We go mad when no one understands us

Also when your best friend betrays you

I leave you this letter, now I must go

Forgive the handwriting of a school child

Are you astonished I’m still feeling something?

Surprise yourself again because Antonio knows how to fly

Simone Cristicchi