Flour dusts my worn blue apron strings
Espresso screams in steel machine
Rosin cakes on frozen fingertips
Travertine drinks the morning mist
Café chairs stay stacked on tabletops
Church bells slice the waking air
No tourist feet on ancient stones
Just music cut from breath and bone
Rome holds its breath for the first bow
Dawn cracks open on Via del Corso now
Notes climb walls where emperors slept
Daylight waits while the violin wept
Bacon fat pops in cast iron pan
Arpeggios spiral up the span
Regulars grin at burnt toast jokes
Pizzicato drops like olive stones
Vapor curls from cobblestone pores
Flute breath joins the violin's roar
Time stretches thin on horsehair thread
Night shifts end where the light is led
Rome holds its breath for the first bow
Dawn cracks open on Via del Corso now
Notes climb walls where emperors slept
Daylight waits while the violin wept
Cello growls from window above
Short order eggs and flawed love
Counter stool spins, vinyl torn
Scales ascend on breaking morn
Rome holds its breath for the first bow
Dawn cracks open on Via del Corso now
Notes climb walls where emperors slept
Daylight waits while the violin wept
Apron hangs on brass hook now
Final chord takes solemn vow
Espresso cups clink ceramic cheer
Square fills up with morning near
Rome holds its breath for the first bow
Dawn cracks open on Via del Corso now
Notes climb walls where emperors slept
Daylight waits while the violin wept
Last note hangs on cooling air
Cook and player trade a stare
Grease and rosin, same rough hands
Dawn arrives on command
Rome exhales at the first bow
Sun claims the square on Via del Corso now
Walls remember where the music crept
Daylight wins but the night was kept
Coffee pours, the bow rests low
Rome wakes up to the final note