“Annina” she sings, inflecting the middle vowel, imbuing the words with total love and absolute thrill.
She repeats it, “Anneeenah” this time adding charity, with the touch of a kitten.
Again “Annina”, delightfully, opening her whole being, a swinging door into heaven’s hallway
You are on the other line, singing silent.
Maybe on a long distance call
Then you respond with the chime: Cera una volta un gatto che si chiamava Aurelia, e faceva Miao Miao Miao”*
And then the silence of her listening, of your listening, and the idea that maybe since she is too little to converse, this delay is a stunting of words, a lapse, even an awkward pause
But this is completely the wrong idea, because in fact what more is there to be said?
She loves you so much that simply saying Ahneenah transcends speech
Like the ringing of a bell
that swung a thousand years ago
still vibrates inside the bell that forms your ribcage
as your thorax rotates down and up
swinging
love
on your breath
* “Once upon a time there was a cat called Aurelia that said Meeow, Meeow, Meeow”
